Short Summary of the Epistle to the Colossians
Lord Adalbert Percival Cecil
Table of Contents
A Short Summary of the Epistle to the Colossians
The Epistle to the Colossians is a kind of link in the chain between the truth brought out in the Epistle to the Romans and that to the Ephesians. There are two positions in which man in the flesh may he looked at, viz., alive to sin, and dead to God. The Epistle to the Romans takes him up in the former view, and brings in the death of Christ: firstly, to justify him before a holy God, and secondly, to give him deliverance from the dominion of his old master, sin, and out of his state as a child of Adam, Christ risen and glorified being his new standing before God. The Epistle to the Ephesians takes him up in the latter view, not alive in sin and under responsibility to God in that condition, but dead in trespasses and sins. God, who is rich in mercy, having raised up the Christ and put Him in glory, by the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, quickens him together with Christ, outside the dead condition of the world, and unites him with Christ in glory and with all the other members of Christ on earth. Thus the body of Christ was formed, and exists now in union with the Head, seated in heavenly places in Him.
The Epistle to the Colossians unites these two aspects of truth together in chapter 2:11-13. Vers. 11-12 take the former aspect, that of the Romans; ver. 13 the latter, that of the Ephesians, though it stops short of the position in heavenly places. In the former view, believers have put off the body of the flesh, or old man, in Christ’s death. We have been buried with Him in baptism in whom also we are risen together through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised Him from the dead. Thus far, though the Christian is brought into perfect liberty, standing in life in a risen Christ, and having the Holy Ghost as the power of life, he is not seen as baptized by the Holy Ghost into one body. In other words, he is not united to Christ in this corporate position. Baptism by water is thus the sign of identification with Christ in His death and burial; Christ coming up out of death giving him, the believer, a perfect standing in life. Ver. 13 carries us on into Ephesian truth—that is, we are not only raised together out of death in Christ, but quickened, or getting life, together with Him (see John 20:22). God having forgiven us all trespasses.
The difference between the Epistle to the Ephesians and that of the Colossians is, that in the former epistle the body is seen seated in heavenly places in the Head, the body being the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. In the latter, the body is seen on earth, full of the life of the Head (see Col. 1:29), but in danger of letting go the Head. The whole truth consequently is to show that in the Son of God up in heaven dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and to press upon the believers at Colosse the necessity of holding the Head. The Son of God is the Head of the body; His Person consequently is largely dwelt on. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in order that they might be guarded on the one hand from Gentile philosophy, and on the other hand from Judaizing Ritualism, the Rationalism and Ritualism of that day. Thus, whilst the unity of the body must remain under all circumstances, yet the responsibility of the members to hold the Head is clearly brought out. Every true assembly is thus exhibited as hanging on the Head, as dependently as an individual Christian is hanging every day upon Christ; not as independent Assemblies; either, of one another, but as belonging to, and witnessing to, the one Head. When this is the case, no man is seen but Christ only, and the body receives nourishment from the Head.
The Epistle
But now, as to the Epistle itself. It is a development of the will of God, now that the full Christian revelation has been made known. Epaphras, one of the Colossian saints, had been a true servant of God in their midst. He had been labouring in prayer unceasingly for them, that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God (ch. 4:12). This will, in its perfectness and completeness, the saints in Colosse and Laodicea did not fully understand, and so they were in danger of being led aside from the truth, by Gentile philosophy and Jewish ritualism, and tradition. This same servant of God had come to the apostle Paul at Rome, and no doubt had told him of their state, which had drawn forth the apostle’s own prayers on their behalf, that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, and had also drawn forth the energy which put into pen the letter which he wrote to the Colossians, which no doubt was for the furtherance of Epaphras’s prayers, that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
The letter, then, is a concise development of God’s will as to the full Christian revelation, by an apostle who himself was such by the will of God. It begins by thanking God, after he had heard of their faith and love, for the hope which was laid up for them in heaven, thus at once a witness to them that their own personal hope in Christ’s second coming was waning, and at the same time witnessing of the faithfulness of God, which had laid it up in heaven for them in the Person of Christ, who was their hope. This would at once cut from under their feet all hope of moral progress on the earth, which Gentile philosophy might boast of, or of a Messiah coming to deliver the Jews temporally, and set up a powerful earthly kingdom. The Christian’s hope was a heavenly one, and was laid up in heaven. He prays, then, in connection with this, that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, etc., then developing the will of God in regard to their relationship with the Father and the Son, and their meetness for the heavenly inheritance, as well as to their present deliverance from the power of darkness, and their present translation into the heavenly kingdom of the Son, in whom they had redemption, the forgiveness of sins (ch. 1:12-14). The good pleasure of God’s will is then developed as to the glory of the Person of God’s Son, as the Center of this heavenly kingdom which would extend to all creation finally, for He was the first-born of all creation, for He was the Creator of all things. But He had also a second glory attached to Him in the midst of this, which is connected with the resurrection. He was the Head of His body the Assembly, who was was the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence, for it was the good pleasure that in Him should all the fullness dwell (ver. 15-19). This good pleasure, or good will, of God is developed in the following verses.
The reconciliation of all things in the future is founded on the first glory of the Son of God, and on the work that He accomplished on the cross, but that would not be complete till after His return, but in the meantime, the heavenly saints, those connected with His second Headship, were already reconciled in the body of His flesh through death. On this two-fold ground, too, the apostle, who was as we have seen, the apostle by God’s will, had a double ministry: first, to every creature under heaven, for Christ was the first-born of all creation; and second, to the Assembly which was Christ’s body, for the administration of the mystery which had been hid in God, but which was now revealed, and which was Christ in the believers, the hope of glory. This mystery was to be displayed amongst the Gentiles (ch. 1:20-28). But the saints were not up to the full knowledge of the will of God in regard to this, and so the apostle was in great agony for them, and for the Laodiceans, that they might come to the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; and that they might all be presented to God perfect in Christ Jesus. In this mystery was hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (ch. 2:1-4).
In ch. 2, He takes up the double form of the opposing element, which was hindering their progress. On the one hand there was Gentile philosophy as displayed in the various schools of thought in Greece and Rome, which was trying to blend itself with Christianity, and on the other side Judaism, with its ritualism, and priestcraft and tradition, hence the “beware” (ch. 2:8). In Christ, in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, they were complete, and His circumcision, viz., His death, had cut them off from all the rest. His resurrection had introduced them into a new creation. Jewish ordinances were nailed up to the cross, principalities and powers spoiled, and a complete triumph gained over them all by a victorious Christ. Let no man, therefore, judge them, ver. 16. They were dead with Christ to the whole thing, ver. 20, and risen again with Him, ch. 3:1. They were not to forget this, but to seek those things that were above, as a heavenly people connected with Christ at the right hand of God: to mortify their members still left on the earth, putting off whatever belonged to the old man, and putting on all the beauteous graces that belonged to the new man, ch. 3:5-17.
Then also to fulfill all the relationships of life to God’s glory, not forgetting to pray for the servants of God, and walking in wisdom towards the world without,—such in short summary is the development of God’s will in this blessed little Epistle. May my readers greatly profit by the reading of it further, as we go more leisurely through its details.
Colossians 1
Paul, then, was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy joins with him in addressing the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which were at Colosse, giving the usual salutation to the Assemblies of grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Col. 1:3, They gave thanks to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for them, (ver. 4) since they heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and their love to all saints (ver. 5) for the hope that was laid up for them in heaven. The word of the truth of the gospel was the means of their hearing it, (ver. 6) and this gospel had come unto them, causing fruit to abound since the first day they heard it, and knew the grace of God in truth. This hope mentioned by Paul in these opening verses gives a character to the Epistle which that to the Ephesians has not got.
The Ephesian Epistle looks at the saints as already seated in the heavenly places in Christ. If they are in such a position they are above hoping, they are already there in spirit, in Christ. He is only waiting till the time when all things should be put under His feet; and we are waiting in this aspect for the same thing (see Eph. 1:10, 18).
Here the saints are looked upon as on earth, but looking up to heaven where Christ their life is, and looking forward to the time when He should personally appear (see Col. 3:1-3) . Thus it was a hope laid up in heaven, for Christ was there, and He is our hope (1 Tim. 1:1). Whilst in Ephesians the body has its standing in Christ who is in heaven; here it is, Christ in you the hope of glory. Thus all earthly hopes (whether as to a glorious kingdom on earth being set up, as a Jew might dream of; or of the conversion of the world to Christ, with all its learning and philosophy) are entirely cut away. Christ is rejected of earth, and accepted of heaven, and soon coming again to take them to heaven. The only hope for them then was a heavenly hope. (Ver. 4, 5), Faith, love and hope are all brought forward in beautiful proximity, and love to all saints regulated (in ver. 8) by the character of the Spirit of God. It is love in the Spirit.
(Ver. 9) Love begets love, and causes the apostle to pray for them that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This, as we have seen, was the thing they were lacking in as to the knowledge of its completeness. Philosophy and human wisdom were doing their utmost to hurt them. They needed the wisdom of God as opposed to this.
(Ver. 10) Knowing God’s will, they would walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; (ver. 11) but for this they needed strength, according to the power of His glory (for they were in a world of enmity) and patience, long-suffering and joyfulness would be the result. I cannot walk worthy of the Lord unless I first know His will. If my knowledge in that will is limited to the law; if converted, I might become a good citizen, a godly magistrate, a wise politician of this world, and if of royal title, a good king. Such were David, Hezekiah, Daniel, Nehemiah, etc. But if by the will of God, His Son has been rejected of this world, and by Judaism especially, and taken up to heaven, all is changed. I am a heavenly citizen, I am a pilgrim here, and my only hope is Christ coming back to fetch me, with all His blood-bought family, to heaven. How important, then, to know God’s will, that we might walk of the Lord unto all pleasing. His walk down here was that of the heavenly Son of God. He was neither magistrate, king, politician nor soldier,—He was a pilgrim and stranger. His kingdom was not of this world!
The result of this walk is both fruitfulness in good works, and increasing in the knowledge of God; for this we need daily strength by the way, even the power of His glory (cp. Eph. 1:19, 20), and in doing so we learn patience and long-suffering; rejoicing in tribulation, too, (ver. 12) and thanking the Father all the way (for what precedes is the walk), that He hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, (ver. 13) that He hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (ver. 14) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Before ever the Christian begins to walk, he is put into this perfect place which is unalterable; no failure in his knowledge or walk can change this. The Colossians and Laodiceans were most defective in the amount of their knowledge, and consequent walk, but their standing in grace was unalterable! What was that standing? (ver. 12) They were a new creation in Christ; Christ was their meetness; (ver. 13) Satan no longer reigned over them, for they were delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the heavenly kingdom of the Son of God’s love; (ver. 14) besides this they had redemption, the forgiveness of sins. What a portion!
In connection with the Colossians’ walk, prayer was needed: for their standing and position he urged them to praise (see ver. 9, 12). But all was worthless for both without the Person in whom they had everything.
My reader, who can express the thought of God’s heart in telling us about His Son, as the Son of His love! He is the Son upon whom the whole of the Father’s affections are set, for having accomplished the purposed thought of His heart from all eternity, viz., the work of redemption!
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again! (see John 10:17).
Eph. 1:6, 7, expresses it thus,
Full graced in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
On the banks of Jordan the Father’s voice was heard to say of Him, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased {Matt. 3:17}!
On the mount of transfiguration,
This is my beloved Son, hear him {Mark 9:7, Luke 9:35}! In John 1:18,
The Son who is in the bosom of the Father!
Here, besides all this, as having accomplished the Father’s will, He is called the Son of His love. Such is the One exalted to be the King of His heavenly kingdom.
We have seen (in ver. 13) that the Son of God is the Center of a kingdom. This in its present aspect is a kingdom not of this world (compare John 18:36). Outwardly it is manifested as the kingdom of heaven, as we see in Matthew’s gospel, but this in Colossians is its real heavenly aspect, and a present place into which the saints are translated, thus no longer belonging to this world. The Son is the Center of this, but a double Headship attaches to Him as such!
(Ver. 15) He is the image of the invisible God, the true representation of God in a man. No one hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him (John 1:18). God’s being is true, though no one has seen Him, or can see Him, and Christ is the express image of His Being (Heb. 1:3), who is Light and Love! But this is shown forth in man. He is the first-born of all creation, not in time, indeed, but in dignity (v. 16), for by Him were all things created. It was said of Solomon, though he was not the first-born son of David,
I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth {Psa. 89:27}.
In time He was born in the virgin’s womb as a man, holy and without spot; but He existed as Son before, for He created all things, whether in heaven or earth, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers—all things were created by Him, as well as for Him; for as man He will be the center of the new creation.
Adam evidently was the figure of Him that was to come, in all this. He was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26, 27). He was the representative of God in this lower creation. In time he was the first created of the human race; all creation was under him, and for him created, but he fell and lost everything. Christ coming into the world replaces him before God. He becomes God’s representative in creation, and is the first-born of all creation, by positional dignity, for He created all things. By redemption, besides, he acquired a right to this place.
(Ver. 17) He is before all created things on earth, He is before all created angels in heaven, and He upholds all things by the word of His power. (Ver. 18) But besides this, He is Head of the body the Church, and this is connected with resurrection.
God’s elect lived in all ages, who were born again and justified, and Christ will, by His power, bring them into blessing, as well as all creation. But as to a body, a bride, the last Adam stood alone, in the midst of a ruined creation, till the cross.
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit (John 12:24).
The Lord was this corn of wheat. Instead of, like the first Adam, gazing upon a beautiful creation lately formed by the hands of the Creator, He gazed upon a wilderness, the fruit of man’s sin. He was surrounded by wild beasts, led on by Satan to crucify Him. But after having been fully tested and tried, and found perfect, He slept, and from His body through His death was formed in resurrection a second Eve, to be for His praise and glory throughout the ages of eternity (cp. Gen. 2:18-25 with Eph. 5:25-32) . And this is now God’s time for the gathering out of the Church. On the day of Pentecost (the Christ having been exalted as man to the right hand of God), the Holy Ghost came down, and baptized all believers into one body, and built them together to be God’s habitation through the Spirit. When Christ returns into the air, this body will be complete, but He is the beginning of it as well as of the new creation.
He is the beginning, the first-born from amongst the dead; the Church is united to Him as come out from the dead, and sat down in heaven, so that in all things He has the pre-eminence. Thus He is the divine Son, the loved One of the Father, the first-born of every creature, the true representative of God in creation, born in time indeed, but in dignity, having the priority as Creator; He is before all things, all things were created by Him and for Him; but secondly, He is the Head of the body, the Church, and that is connected with resurrection. Besides, (ver. 19) it was the good pleasure of the Godhead (for so the verse ought to read), that in Him should all the fullness dwell. How blessed to see the will of God thus connected with the glory of the Son of His love! It is the same thing in the Epistle to the Ephesians, only there it is connected with the full purpose of God concerning His Anointed One, His Beloved, viz., that He is to be, in the age to come, God’s Center of all things in heaven and earth! The will of God is also connected there with our adoption as children, and our inheritance in Christ (see Eph. 1:5, 9, 10, 11).
In Colossians this good pleasure or will is developed in the following verses. (Ver. 20) He has made peace for enemies by the blood of His cross; He was the divine peace-offering, perfect, so that God could accept Him as a sweet savor (Lev. 3), and the fruit is, that all things, whether in heaven or earth, shall be reconciled, not only the new creation in the Church, but all Old Testament saints that have died, as well as those who shall be saved after the Church is gone, with all the millennial saints, as well as all other things (cp. Eph. 1:9, 10)
(Ver. 21) But not only will all creation be reconciled to God by Him who is the first-born of every creature, on the ground of His work, and that according to the good pleasure or will of God, but also you Colossians, the representatives of the Church, once alienated, and enemies in mind by wicked works, already hath He reconciled. But what is the only way for an enemy to be reconciled? (Ver. 22) He can only be presented through death, the divine peace-offering having died. Thus our state of enmity by wicked works is brought to an end, and we enter into peace and acceptance into the presence of God, in Him who is a sweet savor, and finally shall be presented holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight, (ver. 23) if we continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Mark, my reader, it does not say, “if we continue in faith, grounded and settled,” but “in the faith,” that is, Christianity! To give up the faith would prove they were not Christians, it would be apostasy. Whenever the saints are looked at as a company on earth, and in the wilderness (cp. Heb. 3, 4, 6, 10), they are taken up more or less on the ground of profession, and there is a possibility of falling away. This is outside the question of God’s eternal purpose and counsel towards them. But in both passages the purport of the apostle is to make the real Christians confident, as thus proving they were real. The first departure of the unreal would be departure from confidence (see Heb. 3:12-14). So here, if ye continue grounded and settled. This again seems to me to mark the character of this Epistle. The professing saints were not established, not perfect; they were in danger, through philosophy and Judaism, of letting go the Head, the Center of Christianity. The hope of Christians—the second coining of Christ—was waning in their souls. The tendency, then, of the apostle’s preaching, like in Acts 14:22, is to exhort them to continue in the faith, of which the Son of God, the Christ, is the Center, as we have seen. The Epistle to the Galatians illustrates the exhortation of Acts 13:43, to continue in the grace of God, that is, in the abiding sense of His free favor, as shown by the blessings He gives, such as justification, sonship, etc.
(Ver. 23) The gospel on the ground of the Son’s Person, the first-born of all creation, and on the ground of His work of reconciliation for all things, goes out to every creature, and Paul was the minister of it. (Ver. 24) The effect of receiving this gospel was to introduce them into the new creation, and to give them an entry as baptized by the Holy Ghost into the body of Christ. (Ver. 25) Therefore, Paul was also a minister of the Church, and as such suffered for the saints, and filled up that which was behind of the sufferings of the Christ in his flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Assembly. He was a minister according to the dispensation of God for the completion of the word of God. (Ver. 26) The Church was a mystery hid from ages and generations, and only now made manifest to the saints (cp. Eph. 3:4-9). God would make known to them what were the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which was Christ in them the hope of glory. This was the mystery of Christ, a body, a new creation formed out of Jew and Gentile and united to Christ by the Spirit, so that one Christ was in them, on earth, outside flesh entirely, for the cross had put an end to it. This was to be displayed amongst the Gentiles! Being on earth there was the hope of glory in front. (Ver. 27) This Christ Paul preached, warning and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that each might be presented perfect in Christ Jesus.
It is most important, my reader, to see that the Church is not only a thing in God’s purpose and counsel (Eph. 1:22, 23), but that it is also a dispensed thing in this world. Paul was the minister of this dispensation (Gk., oikonomia). If we are in fellowship with the great minister of the dispensation, we shall be heralding the truth of Gentile and Jewish believers being fellow-heirs, and of one body to our fellow-Christians (cp. Eph. 3:2-7), so that the result should be, that we may walk together in this world, as members of the Father’s family, as members of Christ’s body, having a common hope of glory set before us. We shall not be content with belonging to the supposed invisible body of Christ, but we shall understand that it was God’s intention that the saints should walk together in this world, as members of the body of Christ. Those that receive this truth will walk together, and in proportion as they do, the body of Christ becomes a visible thing in this world. To come short of this is not to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, which was the object of the apostle in writing the Epistle, that the saints should do (see ver. 28).
Thus in this chapter we have especially two aspects of the Person of Christ dwelt on. First, (ver. 15) He is the Son, the first-born of all creation. Secondly, (ver. 18) He is the Head of the body, the Church. In connection with this double Headship, we have two reconciliations, two aspects of His work: first, (ver. 20) the reconciliation of all things to Himself, that is, things in heaven and earth, when He comes again (cp. Eph. 1:10); and secondly, (ver. 21, 22) you Colossians, representatives of the Assembly of God, already reconciled. In connection, too, with what precedes, we have, lastly, two aspects of ministry: first, (ver. 23) the ministry of the Gospel which goes out to every creature; and secondly, (ver. 25) the ministry of the Assembly or body, which only includes the saints. And this circle of truth completes the word of God! The aspect of the Assembly in Colossians is—Christ in you. The aspect of the Assembly in Ephesians is—in Christ. The apostle was satisfied with nothing less than the presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus; perfect and complete in all the will of God! Perfect signifies full aged!
Colossians 2
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. 10:22). 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, 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. 6:4; 1 Cor. 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; 6:12-14).
(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, 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.
Colossians 3
A risen Christ is all that remains, risen out of death and sat down on high, and they risen with Him. If that was their position, Paul besought their to seek those things that were above where the Christ sat at the right hand of God; (Col. 3:2) they were to set their mind on things above, not on things on the earth, (ver. 3) for they had died, and their life was hid with the Christ in God, He was their life;—just as the twelve stones of memorial were set up in the midst of Jordan, and other twelve stones were to be taken out of Jordan and set up in Gilgal to remind the Israelites of the cutting off of the waters of Jordan by the ark of the covenant, and of their passage through into the land of Canaan,—so the Christians were to remember that they had died, and that their life was hid with Christ in God (see Joshua 4:1-10, 20-24).
(Ver. 4) He would soon appear, and when He should appear they would appear with Him in glory. How secure is the Christian! as to death and judgment, it is behind him; he has died with Christ. As to his life, it is hid with the Christ in God. No one can therefore pluck that life out of Christ’s hands. As to the future it is certain glory. When He shall appear they shall appear with Him in glory. Thus the position into which Paul puts the Colossians is dead and risen with Christ, looking up to heaven where their life is, and looking forward to their appearing with Him in glory. In the first chapter, their hope was laid up in heaven. Here it is their life. Thus as to their standing, all was perfect, they were but waiting for the glory—they were not in the flesh at all. As to that, they were dead with Christ. Christ was their life, outside flesh.
(Ver. 5) Nevertheless flesh was in them, so they were to put to death its members. Notice not the members of the body—those are to be yielded to God (see Rom. 6:13). Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and ye are not your own (1 Cor. 6:15, 19, 20). It is here the members of the old man. What were they? Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil lusts and covetousness, which is idolatry. Everything is an idol which man covets. I have died with Christ, and risen with Him in order that I may put to death. “To put to death” is a very different thing from “to die.” The one is done once and for ever, the former is a daily thing. The children of Israel did not cross the Red Sea or Jordan twice. Nevertheless they had to learn themselves afterwards and had great struggles and conflicts. After Israel crossed the Jordan they encamped in Gilgal, and it was here they were circumcised (see Josh. 5). The reproach of Egypt was rolled away. “Mortify therefore” is our Gilgal. After every fresh conflict and victory, Israel returned to Gilgal, the place of circumcision. So with us there is the need of this continual mortification of our members. These members of the flesh in activity cause the wrath of God to come on the children of unbelief. These Colossians had also formerly lived in them. But not only are the outward gross sins to be put off, but also anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy speaking, and lying. All these things belong to the old man which they had put off. Now they had put on the new man which was daily renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him. This goes a little beyond Ephesians where the new man is looked at in the absoluteness of the new creation. Here it is not only created, but renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.
In this new creation there was neither Greek nor Jew, uncircumcision nor circumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in all. They had put off the old man, and they were daily called to put off his deeds; they had put on the new man, once and for all, now they were called to put on his fruits. These were bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance towards one another, and forgiveness towards one another, if any had a quarrel against any, as the Christ forgave them. But love was the chief thing. It was the bond of perfection. Gifts might abound (see 1 Cor. 12), but without love they were worth nothing (1 Cor. 13). The peace of the Christ, too, should rule in their hearts; whereunto they were called in one body: outside in the world was enmity and hatred—inside was peace and love. The word of the Christ, too, should dwell in them, and whatever they did in word and deed, they were to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. What precious thoughts of God! The forgiveness of Christ is our model. The peace of Christ is to rule in our hearts. The word of Christ to dwell in us richly. Singing and joy is the result. The three first-fruits of the Spirit come out here—love, joy, peace; but it is the love of Christ, the joy of Christ, the peace of Christ.
All the relationships of life remain. And the Lord’s name introduced to sanction them all. If they were wives, they were to submit themselves to their husbands; if they were husbands they were to love their wives; if they were children, they were to obey their parents—it was well-pleasing to the Lord; if they were fathers, they were not to provoke their children; if they were servants, they were to obey, not looking to men for their approbation, but as fearing God. All these duties towards one another were seen and noticed by the Lord, and He would give the reward. There was no respect of persons with the Lord.
Colossians 4
Lords were to give to their servants what was just and equal, for they had a Lord in heaven. Towards those without in the world, they were to walk in wisdom, redeeming the time. Their speech always with grace, seasoned with salt, so as to know how to answer every man. Different servants of the Lord are mentioned at the end. There are commendations to each, with the exception of Demas, who afterwards forsook Paul. If it is Tychicus, he is a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellow-servant. If it is Onesimus, he is a faithful and beloved brother. Aristarchus is his fellow-prisoner. Marcus, related to Barnabas, was to be received. Jesus, called Justus, was also mentioned. All these had been a comfort to Paul. Then there was a valuable saint like Epaphras, who labored much for them in prayer that they might stand perfect and complete in the will of God. The epistle was to be read in Laodicea, and a warning given to Archippus there to take heed of the ministry which he had received of the Lord that he might fulfill it. A salutary word both to the assembly and the messenger, which they would have done well to have heeded. Laodicea (see Rev. 3:14), as not holding the Head, was finally to be spued out of Christ’s mouth. Much they had to boast of, but alas! there was want of heart to Christ.
This Epistle, then, is an address both to the Colossian and Laodicean Church. It is addressed to them as having heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and their love to all the saints. It was written that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God which is developed first as to their hope, then as their relationship with the Father and Son, and their meetness for heaven and perfect standing in the heavenly kingdom of the Son, then as to the double glory of the Son, and as His being the full manifestation of God in His fullness, then as to the future purpose of God for the reconciliation of all things, and the present reconciliation and administration of the Church, Paul having a double ministry connected with each. He labored that the saints might come to the full assurance of understanding to the full knowledge of this mystery. If the Laodicean saints had listened to this word, we should not have had the sad word addressed to them in Rev. 3, from Him who was the Amen, the faithful witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Instead of being rich, increased in goods, and being full in themselves, they would have cleaved to the One revealed in this Epistle, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead was revealed bodily, they would have held the Head in sensible weakness, instead of being lukewarm and indifferent to Him. Oh, may the Lord use the study of this Epistle as the antidote to Laodicean lukewarmness, and use it to save the saints from the seducing influences of this world! On the one side there is the Gentile philosophy and rationalism of the day, which has had its result in the rival sects (see 1 Cor. 1), on the other side there is the danger from Judaism (see Galatians and Hebrews). The truth is in the Person of the Christ, in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and who is Head over all things; Head of His body, and the saints are complete in Him. The saints are responsible to stand together in conscious union with Him, holding the Head!