Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Colossians 2:4
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
4. And this I say, lest &c.] He states the precise practical occasion of such a general statement of truth. It is, the danger now surrounding the Colossians, and of which Paul, though absent, is keenly and lovingly cognizant.
beguile you ] Lit., “ reason you aside,” “lead you astray by reasoning.”
enticing words ] Almost, “ a persuasive style,” as distinguished from the power of solid facts truly presented and received. The pretensions of speculative heresy, always flattering man rather than humbling him, would answer this description exactly. R.V., persuasiveness of speech. “The subtlety of human reasonings has always been the stumbling-block of faith” (Quesnel).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And this I say – Respecting the character and sufficiency of the truth revealed in Christ.
Lest any man should beguile you – Deceive you, lead you away from the truth.
With enticing words – Artful words, smooth and plausible arguments; such as were employed by the Greek sophists and rhetoricians.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. Lest any man should beguile you] The word means to deceive by sophistry or subtle reasoning, in which all the conclusions appear to be fairly drawn from the premises, but the premises are either assumed without evidence, or false in themselves; but this not being easily discovered, the unthinking or unwary are carried away by the conclusions which are drawn from these premises. And this result is clearly intimated by the term , enticing words, plausible conclusions or deductions from this mode of reasoning. The apostle seems to allude to the Gentile philosophers, who were notorious for this kind of argumentation. Plato and Socrates are not free from it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And this I say; here he suggests the ground of his insisting upon the excellent treasures of the saving knowledge of Christ, and the ample description of him.
Lest any man should beguile you; to this end, that he might fortify them against delusion by paralogisms, or sophistical and false reasonings, fallacious arguing, (as the word notes, Jam 1:22), under a colourable pretence and show of wisdom, Col 2:8,18,23. With enticing words; set off with rhetorical suasions and embellishments, intimating the prevalency of such blandishments, with fair words and good speeches to seduce the simple, if the heart were not established with grace, Rom 16:18; Eph 4:14; 5:6; Heb 13:9; and therefore, esteeming the excellent knowledge of Christ, and being found in him, Phi 3:8,9, they should beware of whatever, under a show of religion, is introduced to seduce them from the simplicity that is in Christ, 2Co 11:3.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. And“Now.”Compare with “lest any man,” c. Col 2:8Col 2:16; Col 2:18.He refers to the blending of Judaism with Oriental philosophy, andthe combination of this mixture with Christianity.
enticing wordsplausibleas wearing the guise of wisdom and humility (Col 2:18;Col 2:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And this I say,…. That he had such a conflict for them, and had told them of his care and fear on their account, and had signified his great desire that they might arrive to a more large and certain knowledge of the mysteries of grace, and had asserted that all solid spiritual wisdom and knowledge were in Christ; all which he said, to show his affection for them; to observe unto them, that there was no need to seek for wisdom and knowledge elsewhere, since there was such a fulness of it in Christ, and the Gospel; and to put them upon their guard against false teachers:
lest any man should beguile you with enticing words; by which are meant, not apt and pertinent words, such as are suited to the minds of men, and proper to convey right ideas of divine truth, poignant expressions, sound speech, and strong reasonings; for such the apostle himself used, and yet not enticing words of men’s wisdom; and which design mere words, great swelling words of vanity, which like bubbles look big, and make a great noise, but contain nothing but wind and emptiness; fair speeches, specious pretences, false colourings, fallacious reasonings, a show of probability, and appearance of science, falsely so called; whereby deceitful workers, such as the followers of Simon Magus and the Gnostics, used, whom the apostle had in view; beguiled unstable souls, and deceived the hearts of the simple: wherefore the apostle said the above things, showing that all true wisdom was in Christ, and all spiritual knowledge was in the pure and unmixed Gospel; which was not to be parted with for other things, which through art and management, and the cunning craftiness of men, might at first sight carry in them a show of probability, and appearance of truth. The gold, the silver, and precious stones of divine truths, which have been proved by the standard, are not to be given up for such as only look like them, being wrought up through the fallacy of men; who by a set of unmeaning words, paralogisms, and false reasonings, lie in wait to deceive.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Glory of the Christian Economy. | A. D. 62. |
4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. 5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. 6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 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. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
The apostle cautions the Colossians against deceivers (v. 4): And this I say lest any man beguile you with enticing words; and v. 8, Lest any man spoil you. He insists so much upon the perfection of Christ and the gospel revelation, to preserve them from the ensnaring insinuations of those who would corrupt their principles. Note, 1. The way in which Satan spoils souls is by beguiling them. He deceives them, and by this means slays them. He is the old serpent who beguiled Eve through his subtlety, 2 Cor. xi. 3. He could not ruin us if he did not cheat us; and he could not cheat us but by our own fault and folly. 2. Satan’s agents, who aim to spoil them, beguile them with enticing words. See the danger of enticing words; how many are ruined by the flattery of those who lie in wait to deceive, and by the false disguises and fair appearances of evil principles and wicked practices. By good words, and fair speeches, they deceive the hearts of the simple, Rom. xvi. 18. “You ought to stand upon your guard against enticing words, and be aware and afraid of those who would entice you to any evil; for that which they aim at is to spoil you.” If sinners entice thee, consent thou not, Prov. i. 10. Observe,
I. A sovereign antidote against seducers (Col 2:6; Col 2:7): As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him, rooted and built up, c. Here note, 1. All Christians have, in profession at least, received Jesus Christ the Lord, received him as Christ, the great prophet of the church, anointed by God to reveal his will as Jesus the great high priest, and Saviour from sin and wrath, by the expiatory sacrifice of himself; and as Lord, or sovereign and king, whom we are to obey and be subject to.–Received him, consented to him, taken him for ours in every relation and every capacity, and for all the purposes and uses of them. 2. The great concern of those who have received Christ is to walk in him–to make their practices conformable to their principles and their conversation agreeable to their engagements. As we have received Christ, or consented to be his, so we must walk with him in our daily course and keep up our communion with him. 3. The more closely we walk with Christ the more we are rooted and established in the faith. A good conversation is the best establishment of a good faith. If we walk in him, we shall be rooted in him; and the more firmly we are rooted in him the more closely we shall walk in him: Rooted and built up. Observe, We cannot be built up in Christ, unless we be first rooted in him. We must be united to him by a lively faith, and heartily consent to his covenant, and then we shall grow up in him in all things.—As you have been taught–“according to the rule of the Christian doctrine, in which you have been instructed.” Observe, A good education has a good influence upon our establishment. We must be established in the faith, as we have been taught, abounding therein. Observe, Being established in the faith, we must abound therein, and improve in it more and more; and this with thanksgiving. The way to have the benefit and comfort of God’s grace is to be much in giving thanks for it. We must join thanksgiving to all our improvements, and be sensible of the mercy of all our privileges and attainments. Observe,
II. The fair warning given us of our danger: 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, v. 8. There is a philosophy which is a noble exercise of our reasonable faculties, and highly serviceable to religion, such a study of the works of God as leads us to the knowledge of God and confirms our faith in him. But there is a philosophy which is vain and deceitful, which is prejudicial to religion, and sets up the wisdom of man in competition with the wisdom of God, and while it pleases men’s fancies ruins their faith; as nice and curious speculations about things above us, or of no use and concern to us; or a care of words and terms of art, which have only an empty and often a cheating appearance of knowledge. After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world: this plainly reflects upon the Jewish pedagogy or economy, as well as the Pagan learning. The Jews governed themselves by the traditions of their elders and the rudiments or elements of the world, the rites and observances which were only preparatory and introductory to the gospel state; the Gentiles mixed their maxims of philosophy with their Christian principles; and both alienated their minds from Christ. Those who pin their faith on other men’s sleeves, and walk in the way of the world, have turned away from following after Christ. The deceivers were especially the Jewish teachers, who endeavoured to keep up the law of Moses in conjunction with the gospel of Christ, but really in competition with it and contradiction to it. Now here the apostle shows,
1. That we have in Christ the substance of all the shadows of the ceremonial law; for example, (1.) Had they then the Shechinah, or special presence of God, called the glory, from the visible token of it? So have we now in Jesus Christ (v. 9): For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Under the law, the presence of God dwelt between the cherubim, in a cloud which covered the mercy-seat; but now it dwells in the person of our Redeemer, who partakes of our nature, and is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and has more clearly declared the Father to us. It dwells in him bodily; not as the body is opposed to the spirit, but as the body is opposed to the shadow. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in the Christ really, and not figuratively; for he is both God and man. (2.) Had they circumcision, which was the seal of the covenant? In Christ we are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands (v. 11), by the work of regeneration in us, which is the spiritual or Christian circumcision. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, Rom. ii. 29. This is owing to Christ, and belongs to the Christian dispensation. It is made without hands; not by the power of any creature, but by the power of the blessed Spirit of God. We are born of the Spirit, John iii. 5. And it is the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit, Tit. iii. 5. It consists in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, in renouncing sin and reforming our lives, not in mere external rites. It is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, 1 Pet. iii. 21. And it is not enough to put away some one particular sin, but we must put off the whole body of sin. The old man must be crucified, and the body of sin destroyed, Rom. vi. 6. Christ was circumcised, and, by virtue of our union to him, we partake of that effectual grace which puts off the body of the sins of the flesh. Again, The Jews thought themselves complete in the ceremonial law; but we are complete in Christ, v. 10. That was imperfect and defective; if the first covenant had been faultless, there would no place have been sought for the second (Heb. viii. 7), and the law was but a shadow of good things, and could never, by those sacrifices, make the comers thereunto perfect, Heb. x. 1. But all the defects of it are made up in the gospel of Christ, by the complete sacrifice for sin and revelation of the will of God. Which is the head of all principality and power. As the Old-Testament priesthood had its perfection in Christ, so likewise had the kingdom of David, which was the eminent principality and power under the Old Testament, and which the Jews valued themselves so much upon. And he is the Lord and head of all the powers in heaven and earth, of angels and men. Angels, and authorities, and powers are subject to him, 1 Pet. iii. 22.
2. We have communion with Christ in his whole undertaking (v. 12): Buried with him in baptism, wherein also you have risen with him. We are both buried and rise with him, and both are signified by our baptism; not that there is anything in the sign or ceremony of baptism which represents this burying and rising, any more than the crucifixion of Christ is represented by any visible resemblance in the Lord’s supper: and he is speaking of the circumcision made without hands; and says it is through the faith of the operation of God. But the thing signified by our baptism is that we are buried with Christ, as baptism is the seal of the covenant and an obligation to our dying to sin; and that we are raised with Christ, as it is a seal and obligation to our living to righteousness, or newness of life. God in baptism engages to be to us a God, and we become engaged to be his people, and by his grace to die to sin and to live to righteousness, or put off the old man and put on the new.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
This I say ( ). Paul explains why he has made this great claim for Christ at this point in his discussion.
May delude (). Present middle subjunctive of , old verb, only here in N.T., from and , to count aside and so wrong, to cheat by false reckoning, to deceive by false reasoning (Epictetus).
With persuasiveness of speech ( ). Rare word (Plato) from and , speech, adapted to persuade, then speciously leading astray. Only here in N.T. One papyrus example. The art of persuasion is the height of oratory, but it easily degenerates into trickery and momentary and flashy deceit such as Paul disclaimed in 1Co 2:4 ( ) where he uses the very adjective (persuasive) of which (both from ) is another form. It is curious how winning champions of error, like the Gnostics and modern faddists, can be with plausibility that catches the gullible.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Beguile [] . Only here and Jas 1:22. See note. Rev., delude. So Ignatius, speaking of the duty of obedience to the bishop, says : “He that fails in this, does not deceive the visible bishop, but attempts to cheat [] the Invisible” (Epistle to Magnesians, 3.). The word is found in the Septuagint, Jos 9:22; 1Sa 19:17; 2Sa 21:5.
Enticing words [] . Rev., persuasiveness of speech. Only here in the New Testament. In classical Greek, of probable argument as opposed to demonstration. So Plato : “Reflect whether you are disposed to admit of probability [] and figures of speech in matters of such importance” (” Theaetetus, ” 163). Compare 1Co 2:4.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
DANGERS OF ENTICING WORDS V. 4-8
1) “And this I say” (touto lego) “This I say,” speak forth to warn.
2) “Lest any man should beguile you” (hina medeis humas paralogizetai) “in order that no one may beguile you, ” come alongside, to entrap you with cunning or misleading influence of words.
3) “With enticing words (en pithanologia) “In persuasive speech” to reason one aside, off track, from truth. Col 2:8; Col 2:18; Rom 16:17-18; Eph 4:14; Eph 5:6. Our Lord gravely warned of subtle, crafty deceivers Mat 24:4; Act 20:30; 1Jn 4:1. The words of deceivers, fast-talking, come-on tornado, hurricane, cyclone, do-gooder; soul winners are to be tried by the Word.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
4. This I say, that no man may deceive you. As the contrivances of men have (as we shall afterwards see) an appearance of wisdom, the minds of the pious ought to be preoccupied with this persuasion — that the knowledge of Christ is of itself amply sufficient. And, unquestionably, this is the key that can close the door against all base errors. (348) For what is the reason why mankind have involved themselves in so many wicked opinions, in so many idolatries, in so many foolish speculations, but this — that, despising the simplicity of the gospel, they have ventured to aspire higher? All the errors, accordingly, that are in Popery, must be reckoned as proceeding from this ingratitude — that, not resting satisfied with Christ alone, they have given themselves up to strange doctrines.
With propriety, therefore, does the Apostle act in writing to the Hebrews, inasmuch as, when wishing to exhort believers not to allow themselves to be led astray (349) by strange or new doctrines, he first of all makes use of this foundation —
Christ yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. (Heb 13:8.)
By this he means, that those are out of danger who remain in Christ, but that those who are not satisfied with Christ are exposed to all fallacies and deceptions. So Paul here would have every one, that would not be deceived, be fortified by means of this principle — that it is not lawful for a Christian man to know anything except Christ. Everything that will be brought forward after this, let it have ever so imposing an appearance, will, nevertheless, be of no value. In fine, there will be no persuasiveness of speech (350) that can turn aside so much as the breadth of a finger the minds of those that have devoted their understanding to Christ. It is a passage, certainly, that ought to be singularly esteemed. For as he who has taught men to know nothing except Christ, has provided against all wicked doctrines, (351) so there is the same reason why we should at this day destroy the whole of Popery, which, it is manifest, is built on ignorance of Christ.
(348) “ Tous erreurs et faussetez;” — “All errors and impostures.”
(349) “ Qu’ils ne se laissent point distraire ça et la;” — “That they do not allow themselves to be distracted hither and thither.”
(350) Pithanologia — our author having here in view the Greek term made use of by Paul, πιθανολογία, ( persuasive speech.) See Calvin on 1 Corinthians, vol. 1, p. 100; also Plat. Theaet. 163, A. — Ed.
(351) “ Toutes fausses et meschantes doctrines;” — “All false and wicked doctrines.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
4. This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.
Translation and Paraphrase
4. I speak this (way about my agony of soul for you) so that no one may deceive you by persuasiveness of speech. (I hope my extreme emotion over you will stir you to be on your guard.)
Notes
1.
Paul was deeply concerned that the Colossians not be deluded by the persuasive speaking of false teachers. There are glib tongues advocating every imaginable religious idea. Many people are easily misled by eloquent speech. See Eph. 4:14.
2.
Paul hoped that by telling the Colossians about the striving in his soul that he could put them on their guard against false teaching, against any teaching which differed from that which he had received by revelation from God and taught to them. Eph. 3:3-5.
Study and Review
40.
Why did Paul speak to these people as he did about his strivings? (Col. 2:4)
41.
What may delude us?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(4) Beguile you.To beguile here is to reason into error; and enticing words are words of persuasion rather than of reason or revelation. Both words are used by St. Paul only in this passage. It would be difficult to describe more accurately the marvellous fabrics of Gnostic speculation, each step claiming to be based on some fancied probability or metaphysical propriety, but the whole as artificial as the cycles and epicycles of the old Ptolemaic astronomy. We know these in all the elaborate monstrosity of full growth; St. Paul doubtless saw them as yet only in embryo.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Beguile you The statements of the three preceding verses are intended to guard them against being deceived by false reasoning or artful rhetoric.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I say this so that no one may (or ‘let no one’) delude you with persuasive speech, for though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, full of joy and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.’
His purpose in showing them the supremacy of Jesus Christ, and that all worthwhile wisdom and knowledge are found in Him, was in order to combat those who came among them with persuasive words. For although he cannot be with them in body, yet he is truly among them in spirit (compare the use in 1Co 5:3-5), genuinely concerned for them, full of joy at their ‘orderly behaviour’ (we could translate this as ‘closing of ranks’, another use of the Greek word, as they unite against those who would deceive them), their growth and the steadfastness of their faith in Christ. He wants them to know that although he has never himself been there, Epaphras has given him a full picture of what they are, so that his affection for them is genuine.
‘Flesh — spirit’. A common contrast in Paul’s letters. But here ‘flesh’ is not used in its Pauline sense as signifying the part of us that drags us down. It signifies being human (as in Joh 1:14). And when the ‘spirit’ of a Christian is spoken of the Spirit is not far away. He may therefore mean, or include, the idea of ‘by the Spirit’ (compare Gal 3:3 where the Spirit is contrasted with the flesh).
‘Order.’ This could mean orderly behaviour in the family (compare 1Co 14:40) or could refer to military order, closing ranks against the enemy.
‘Steadfastness.’ The word can mean a ‘barrier’. Thus he may be saying that they have closed ranks and set up a barrier against the foe, the barrier of faith (compare ‘the shield of faith’ – Eph 6:16). But the idea may be more generally of steadfastness of faith.
Christ Who Partakes In All The Fullness of God Has Saved, Transformed and Delivered Us (Col 2:6 – Col 2:15)
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Col 2:4. And this I say, Namely, “That all the treasures of wisdom are in Christ,that you may not be imposed upon by the plausible argumentations of human philosophy.” See Col 2:8. St. Paul comes here directly to treat of that matter which he chieflydesigned in writing this epistle. Thoughhe was well pleased with the Colossians continuing hitherto so steadfast in the doctrine that he had taught, and in maintaining the liberty which they had by Christ, and had therefore bestowed great commendations upon them; yet he was apprehensive of their being in danger from some of the Jewish and Gentile converts, who were endeavouring to seduce and corrupt them. The points in which he judged them most liable to be deceived, were the pretended obligation of the Gentiles to submit to the Mosaic law and the Jewish traditions, and to yield a worship to angels; against which he cautions them with much earnestness, shewing them that they had in Christ all that they could pretend to seek for elsewhere; and that by having recourse to the law, they forsook the substance, and embraced shadows only.That Christ had abolished the obligation to observe the law; that they were obliged by their baptism to refuse the submission urged upon them; and that by paying the respect to angels, which was recommended to them, they in effect renounced Christ as their head, upon whom alone their hopes ought to depend, as all their supplies were derived only from him. His discourse, though short, is admirably adapted to his subject, and sets forth, with much magnificence, the glorious advantages which they had by Christ, above what could be expected from the law, or from the doctrines of the philosophers.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Col 2:4 . After this affecting introduction, testifying to his zealous striving for the Christian development of his readers, and thereby claiming their faithful adherence to his gospel, the warning now follows, for the sake of which Paul has prefixed Col 2:1-3 ( ). That does not refer merely to Col 2:3 (so Oecumenius, Theophylact, Calvin, Zanchius, Estius, and others, including Bhr and Bhmer; Huther is undecided) is in itself probable, since Col 2:1-3 form a connected sentence admirably preparatory in its entire purport for what follows, and is confirmed by Col 2:5 , which glances back to Col 2:1 . Hence: This contained in Col 2:1-3 , which ye ought to know, I say with the design that, etc.
(see the critical remarks); comp. Mar 5:43 ; Tit 3:12 ; Rev 3:11 , et al.
.] In N. T., only found elsewhere in Jas 1:22 (see Theile in loc .); frequent in the later Greek writers since Demosthenes (822. 25, 1037. 15). It indicates, by a term borrowed from false reckoning, the deception and overreaching that take place through false reasoning. What particular sophistries the false teachers, whose agitations at all events tended (see Col 2:8 f.) to the disadvantage of the Pauline gospel , were guilty of, does not appear. It is certain, however, that they were not those suggested by Bhmer (nothing good can come out of Nazareth; one who was crucified cannot have possessed divine wisdom), since the false teachers were not non-Christians. Hardly did these beguiling sophistries affect the person of the apostle , as if he were not concerning himself about the confirming and training of churches not planted by himself, as Hofmann thinks. In that case we should have in Col 2:1-3 only a self-testimony to the contrary, which, as assertion against assertion, would neither have been skilful nor delicate; nor do we in what follows find any defence in opposition to personal calumniation. This applies also in opposition to Holtzmann, p. 177. The in Col 2:5 by no means requires this interpretation.
] by means of persuading speech; Luther’s “with rational discourses” misapprehends the meaning. It occurs in this place only in the N. T.; but see Plato, Theaet . p. 162 E; comp. Dem. 928. 14: , also , Diog. L. x. 87; Diod. Sic. i. 39; and , Lucian, Amor . 7. Hence the art of persuasion: , Arr. Epict . i. 8. 7.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
(4) And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. (5) For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. (6) As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: (7) Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. (8) 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. (9) For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. (10) And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Within the compass of these few verses, we have several very interesting subjects. I must be brief. It appears, that in the Apostle’s days, as well as in ours, the Church of Christ had to contend with what Paul calls enticing words of man’s wisdom. It was made up of philosophy, falsely so called, and vain deceit. But here was the line of distinction, it was not after Christ, then was it against Christ, for so Christ saith, he that is not with me is against me, Mat 12:30 . There is nothing neutral in this war. And I beg the Reader yet further to observe, this malice to the Church of Jesus came not from the openly profane. It was not the opposition of the licentious, or the daring ungodly, but professors of religion. Yea, it should seem, from what Paul saith of their beguiling and enticing words, that they were very zealous for an holy life and conversation. Such were the Pharisees of our Lord’s days. Such it should appear were those of Paul’s days. Such there hath been in all days. And such, I am sure, are in ours. But the Holy Ghost hath marked their real character by his servant, when he saith, they are not after Christ!
But, Reader! we are much more concerned to know what remedy God the Holy Ghost, by his servant Paul, hath here pointed put to counteract their fallacy, than to go in any further search after their character. And, sure I am, that what the blessed Spirit hath in those few verses commanded, if attended to, and accompanied with his blessing, must prove the most effectual preservative against an whole host of Pharisees, men of fake philosophy, and the rudiments of the world. It cannot possibly fail, but must forever silence all opposition, both of the leaven of the Pharisee, and of hypocrisy, because it is wholly of Christ, it comes from Christ, it leads to Christ, and rests all upon Christ. Lord! I would say for myself, and all his people, give us to hear in this sweet scripture what the Spirit saith unto the Churches! And thus the lord speaks. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Let us examine these great points one by one.
And first. As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord. The question is how have you received him? There can be but one proper way, and that is when a man receives Christ as a poor, needy, ruined, and undone sinner is supposed to receive him, Reader! if so be you have received Christ, it is easy for you to describe how you received him. You came, if you came right, under the fullest sense, that you had nothing but sin, you were nothing but a sinner, and you needed Christ as a whole and complete Savior. Now then it is God the Holy Ghost, which in this scripture positively commands, that as you first received him, so are you to receive him now. For you have no more to bring him the last day of your abode on earth, in a way of recommendation, than you had the first day you ‘heard of his blessed name. And as you did not halve it with Christ when you fled to him for salvation, so have you nothing to divide with him now. And I will be bold to say, that if this blessed precept of God the Holy Ghost was closely followed, and such views of Jesus, as are here held up by the Holy Ghost, were kept alive in all hearts, preached by all ministers in all Churches of the Lord’s people, and by grace pursued by everyone professing the eternal truths of the Gospel, it would tend, under the divine blessing, more effectually to silence the unhumbled pride of the Pharisee, who hath never been brought acquainted with the plague of his own heart, than all the exhortations to the carnal, and to the followers of false philosophy and the rudiments of the world. Secondly. The very reception of Christ in this manner, both first and last, will cause the poor, sensible sinner to accept him under all his offices and characters. I shall receive him as Christ, that is, God and man in one Person, God’s Christ, God’s anointed, God’s chosen, God’s sent, God’s sealed. Hence, I shall receive him in God’s name and authority. I shall receive him as Jesus, a Savior, for such was, and is, and will be, his name, to save his people from their sins, Mat 1:21 . And I shall receive him as my Lord, for the whole affections of my soul will bow before him, when the Lord hath made me willing in the day of his power, Psa 110:3 . And, oh! what a blessed security shall I find against sin, and all the tremendous consequences of it, when receiving Christ Jesus the Lord in all the compleatness of his finished salvation; and as God the Father’s remedy, of his own providing, in delivering from the wrath to come.
Thirdly. And when, tinder divine teaching, the soul is daily led to see and feel her daily need of Christ, so as to receive him every day, as he was received the first day, and to be made sensible that equally will he be needed to the very last day, a soul so taught of God, will be in no danger of philosophy or vain deceit. To walk in Christ, and to act faith upon Christ, will be the leading principle of the soul. Every duty will be undertaken only in his strength, and every desire of the soul will be but for his glory, Reader! pause over this view of the subject! Can a child of God do otherwise than walk in Christ, as long as he makes Christ the whole of salvation? Is not that man rooted and built up in Christ, whose springs of spiritual life are all in him? Is he not established in the faith who makes Christ both the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last in his salvation? But if a man comes to Christ at the first as a poor, self-condemned sinner, and in the after stages of life fancieth he hath now somewhat to bring to the Lord, and, therefore, brings of his own, as a procuring cause, or, as some men call it, the evidences of his calling, what is this but a departure from the original plan of coming? It cannot be said that he is now walking in Christ Jesus the Lord as he first received him. And, hence, this command of the Holy Ghost is not obeyed.
Reader! bear with me while I say, that, according to my view of things, to this one cause is to be ascribed the leanness of the Church in the present day, and even some, which have, in times past, learned the truth as it is in Jesus, Many there are, who, when the Lord first called them from darkness to light, Set out upon the sweet plan of receiving Christ, as God the Holy Ghost hath here set him forth. But it may be said of them, as the Lord Jesus himself said to the Church at Ephesus, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love, Rev 2:4 . It is a melancholy consideration that our affections to Christ should lessen, and that we should fancy we need him not as much in the after parts of life, as when first we came to him, self-condemned, and self-loathing; when it is notorious to every man who is no stranger to the plague of his own heart, that we multiply transgressions as we multiply days!
Lastly, to add no more. This sweet command of God the Spirit which bids us walk in Christ, under the same needy circumstances as we first received Christ, bids us also to abound in Christ with thanksgiving. Precious consideration to a child of God, that is daily receiving out of Christ’s fulness, and grace for grace. There will be cause for unceasing praise, and abounding thanksgivings as long as we are drawing out of the wells of salvation. While I am living upon the daily alms of my Lord, every visit to his mercy-seat will be opening new cause for joy, for I shall go out empty and return full. I shall lose sight of my nothingness in my Lord’s all-sufficiency. And from receiving Christ Jesus the Lord as I received him the first day, I shall be rooted and built up in him the last day. Jesus will be unceasingly precious, when I find my soul established in him. And while he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake, He will be my strength and song, and I shall abound in him with thanksgiving.
I now beg the Reader’s attention to what is contained in the latter part of this paragraph. Paul having, in what went before, stated the necessity of always receiving Christ the same, here gives the reason of it: For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And, as if fearing such a stupendous contemplation might overwhelm the mind, (as it might well be supposed to do,) he adds, ye are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. Reader! do not expect an explanation of this wonderful mystery, God manifest in the flesh, God dwelling in flesh, yea, all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily! This is not the province either of men or angels to unfold. Neither is it revealed for the object of our discovery, but for our faith. One point only I beg particularly to notice in it, by way of recommending it more affectionately, as an article of faith, to the Reader’s heart, and to my own: namely, that what is here said of the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Christ bodily, most evidently and plainly means in Christ personal. Not as God is said in scripture to dwell with his people, and walk in them, which means nothing more than in a way of grace. But by the indwelling of the Godhead bodily in Christ, means a oneness and union of God and man in one Person; so that the human nature of Christ is filled with the divine nature, and both are so inseparably united, as to form but One and the same Person. Oh! the glorious truth! Oh! the vast dignity bestowed on the Church!
But how is this immense blessing enhanced to our view, when the Apostle adds, and ye are complete in Him. Complete, not only in all blessedness which arise out of Christ’s offices in redemption, justification, sanctification, and the like, but complete by means of the Church’s union with Christ, and her oneness with him. For as Christ Personal, God and Man in One, forms his glorious name, Christ; so the Church’s union with Christ, brings with it an interest in all that belongs to him as Christ. It is a personal union of the Church with him, as her Head and Husband. And it thereby becomes a vital, spiritual union, living in him, and living by him: For he that is joined to the Lord is One Spirit, 1Co 6:17 ; Eph 5:32 .
I must not trespass in calling the Reader to the contemplation of the thousandth part of the blessings which arise out of this union. But a doctrine full of such stores of comfort, must not pass wholly unnoticed. I will beg to notice a few.
And s first . As the source and fountain of all, let the Reader pause over this precious view of One in his own nature, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily. Though we can form no one idea that can bear the least proportion to what it really is, in the infinite dimensions of Godhead filling Christ’s manhood; yet we may suppose that the Son of God, in this beauty and glory of Being, must be an object of unequalled excellency and greatness, since God the Father when contemplating him, and bringing him forth to the Church was thus heard to speak of him; Mine Elect, saith God, in whom my soul delighteth! Isa 42:1 . Such is the glory of his Person as God-man, that independent of all acts or works to be afterwards wrought by him, Christ himself is infinitely more lovely and more beloved in God’s esteem, than any object beside. Millions of worlds, including all their inhabitants, sink to nothing in comparison, Mat 3:17 ; Luk 9:35 ; Joh 12:28 .
Secondly. What a view doth the contemplation of such a Being afford to the soul of a regenerated believer, when he adds to the thought of what a Person so full of glory is in himself, is also in the infinite perfections of dispensing to others! I fear that this view of our adorable Christ is not considered, even by the Church of God, as it ought in the full extent of the subject. We are apt to confine our views of Christ as GOD-man Mediator, as if his office was limited to his body the Church. My Brother! beg of God the Holy Ghost to remove this narrow notion, and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ more to your view, and you will behold Christ as God – man Mediator, carrying on all the executive part of Jehovah’s administration, in all the departments of nature, providence, grace, and glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ formed worlds, and both upholds all things, and governs all things. And this he doth as Mediator. Without this union of God and man, creation itself would have wanted a foundation. By him all things consist. Hence the sweetness and preciousness of this scripture, as well as the glory of it. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Oh! what a glorious object of everlasting love, adoration, and delight, is our Lord Jesus! Well might the Psalmist call him, the praise of all his saints, Psa 148:14 .
Thirdly. But what endears the whole to the view of every truly regenerated child of God, and makes our meditation of Jesus so sweet, is, that while we are taught to know him as the God-man, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the head bodily; we are no less taught to behold him as the head of his body the Church, the fulness that filleth all in all. Hence, all he is in this relationship, he is for his people. And they are complete in him. Not only complete in being accepted in him, as the Lord their righteousness, holy in his holiness, and made perfect in his perfection, but considered as one with him, they become his mystical body. And as the Head gives life and perfection to the body; so Christ, as Christ, gives life and perfection to his. And, hence, as they are complete in him as their head, so Christ is complete in them as his members. The head of anything could not be complete, without a body, neither can Jesus, as the head of his body the Church, be complete without the Church his body! Reader! ponder well the unspeakable mercy! You are groaning ‘daily, under a conscious sense of a body of sin and death you carry about with you. Look to Him, in whom alone all your perfection is. Behold him as he is in himself. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Behold him as he is to his Church, ye are complete in him. Behold him as he is in his relationship to that Church, he is the Head of all principality and power. How much more to his own body? Think, my brother, what will that great day of God unfold, when the perfection of this Almighty Head of ours will manifest his perfection, not only in the glories of his own body personal, but in the perfection of his own body mystical, made comely in his comeliness, and perfect in his perfection! Oh! the joy of the vast multitude of all his innumerable members, when all shall see him as he is, and know even as they are known! Oh! the rapture of the whole ransomed of the Lord, which will then return to Zion with songs of everlasting joy upon their head, when Christ is beheld in all the fulness of the God-Head bodily! And, oh! my poor soul, what will be thy joy in that great day of God, when after all the breaking out of thy corruptions here below, the heartaches and headaches, by reason of sin, the fiery darts of Satan, and the scorns of the world, when thou shalt not only behold thy Jesus in all that is blessed and glorious in himself, but shalt find thyself to be a member of his mystical body, a part of Jesus himself, as one among the members of his body the Church! Lord! I bow down under the overwhelming contemplation! When will the day break, and the shadows flee away? Haste, haste my beloved, and be thou as the hart upon the mountains of spices!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
Ver. 4. With enticing words ] With probable and persuasible speeches, . It is not safe for simple men to hear heretics; for though they may think themselves able enough to answer them, yet they have a notable faculty of persuading the credulous and less cautelous. a The Valentinian heretics had an art to persuade before they taught. (Tertull.) The locusts have faces like women. In the year 497, Pope Anastasius II, seeking to reduce the heretic Acacius, was seduced by him.
a Cautious, wary, heedful, circumspect. D
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
4 .] See summary at the beginning of the chapter. [ But (the contrast is between the assertion above, and the reason of it, now to be introduced)] this (viz. Col 2:1-3 , not Col 2:3 only, as Thl., Calv., al.: for Col 2:1 is alluded to in Col 2:5 , and Col 2:1-3 form a logically connected whole) I say, in order that (aim and design of it) no one may deceive you (the word is found in this sense in. sch. p. 16, 33, , ib. in Ctesiph. (Wetst.), also in Diod. Sic., &c., in Wetst. See also Palm u. Rost sub voce) in (element in which the deceit works) persuasive discourse (add to the ref. Plato, Thet. p. 162 e, . , and see 1Co 2:4 ):
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Col 2:4-15 . PAUL URGES HIS READERS NOT TO BE BEGUILED BY PLAUSIBLE WORDS, BUT TO HOLD CHRIST FAST AS THE PRINCIPLE OF MORAL CONDUCT. THEY MUST LET NO ONE TAKE THEM CAPTIVE BY DECEITFUL PHILOSOPHY AND HUMAN TRADITION, WITH THE ELEMENTS OF THE WORLD AND NOT CHRIST FOR ITS CONTENT. IN HIM ALONE DWELLS THE WHOLE FULNESS OF THE GODHEAD, AND THEIR COMPLETENESS IS IN HIM. THEY HAVE DIED, BEEN BURIED AND RAISED WITH HIM, GOD HAS QUICKENED THEM WITH HIM, WHILE THEY WERE DEAD IN SINS, HAS CANCELLED THE HOSTILE LAW ON THE CROSS, AND SPOILED AND LED IN TRIUMPH THE PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Col 2:4 . . Haupt thinks the reference is only to Col 2:3 , but this verse looks back as far as 2 b , and Col 2:5 to Col 2:1 . Generally the reference of is thought to be Col 2:1-3 , though Soden thinks it is to Col 1:24 to Col 2:3 . means to deceive by false reckoning, then, as here, by false reasoning. : “persuasive speech”. The word has no bad sense in itself, and what bad sense it has here it gets from . Classical writers use it with the meaning of probable argument as opposed to strict demonstration.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
lest, &c. = in order that (Greek. hina) no one (Greek. medeis).
beguile = deceive. Greek. paralogizomai. Here and Jam 1:22.
with. App-104.
enticing words. Greek. pilhanelogia. Only here.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
4.] See summary at the beginning of the chapter. [But (the contrast is between the assertion above, and the reason of it, now to be introduced)] this (viz. Col 2:1-3, not Col 2:3 only, as Thl., Calv., al.: for Col 2:1 is alluded to in Col 2:5,-and Col 2:1-3 form a logically connected whole) I say, in order that (aim and design of it) no one may deceive you (the word is found in this sense in. sch. p. 16, 33, ,-ib. in Ctesiph. (Wetst.), -also in Diod. Sic., &c., in Wetst. See also Palm u. Rost sub voce) in (element in which the deceit works) persuasive discourse (add to the ref. Plato, Thet. p. 162 e, . , and see 1Co 2:4):
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Col 2:4. , lest any man) So Col 2:8; Col 2:16; Col 2:18.- , beguile you with enticing or plausible words) Comp. Rom 16:19, with what goes before. That is, an enticing plausible speech, which, for example, makes a show of humility, Col 2:18; Col 2:23. Some mixed together Judaism and the Eastern philosophy. See Budd. eccl. apost., pp. 466, 467.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Col 2:4
Col 2:4
This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech.-He gives them this knowledge that they may not be turned away from Christ by enticing words. He gives the following warning concerning false teachers. For they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent. (Rom 16:18). And again he warns: Be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error. (Eph 4:14). The protection against this being carried away by error given in enticing words is a full knowledge of Gods will as delivered in Christ. The Colossian church was steadfast in faith and true to the word of God, though not taught by an apostle.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
lest: Col 2:8, Col 2:18, Mat 24:4, Mat 24:24, Mar 13:22, Act 20:30, Rom 16:18, Rom 16:19, 2Co 11:3, 2Co 11:11-13, Gal 2:4, Eph 4:14, Eph 5:6, 2Th 2:9-11, 1Ti 4:1, 1Ti 4:2, 2Ti 2:16, 2Ti 3:13, Tit 1:10, Tit 1:11, 1Pe 2:1-3, 1Jo 2:18, 1Jo 2:26, 1Jo 4:1, 2Jo 1:7, Rev 12:9, Rev 13:8, Rev 20:3, Rev 20:8
enticing: 1Co 2:4
Reciprocal: Deu 13:6 – entice 1Co 15:50 – this 2Co 9:6 – I say 2Co 11:13 – false Gal 2:5 – we Gal 3:17 – this Eph 4:17 – I say Heb 13:9 – carried Jam 1:16 – Do
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
(Col 2:4.) -Now, this I say. This present tense some regard as future in its look, as if the apostle meant-what I am about to utter is intended to prevent your being led astray. But the clause has evidently a retrospective reference to the preceding statement, and not exclusively either to the first or third verse. What I am saying, or have just said, as to my anxiety for you, and as to the treasury of genuine science in the gospel, has this purpose-to put you on your guard. Do not listen to those specious harangues about their boasted possession of the only or the inner and . It is all a delusion intended to impose upon you Purest wisdom and loftiest knowledge are not in their keeping but in yours; for in that mystery into which you have been now so fully initiated, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge. Quaerendum est, says Tertullian, donec invenias, et credendum ubi inveneris, et nihil amplius, nisi custodiendum quod credidisti.
-Lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. The reading , though unusual, is supported by A, B, C, D, E, while the reading of the Stephanic Text rests on inferior authorities. The deponent verb used by the apostle occurs only again in Jam 1:22; but is found in the Seventy, 1Sa 19:17. It is found also in Demosthenes, where it signifies to miscount. Here it denotes to delude by false reasoning, as in AEschines, p. 53 (ed. Dobson, vol. xii.); Polyb. 16, 10, 3; Gen 29:25; Jos 9:22 (28). The means of deception are characterized by one pithy and expressive compound-. The word occurs only in this place. The cognate verb which is found in the classical writers, is defined by Passow to mean-to bring forward reasons in order to prove anything likely or probable; or, as we might say in English-to talk so as to talk one over. The substantive occurs in Plato; and the word, in its separate parts, , is found in Josephus and Philo. The term is here employed in a bad sense,-to characterize that teaching which aimed to fascinate their mind and debauch their conscience, by its specious sophistry. This is a c ommon accompaniment of heretical novelty. It professes, by a process of dilution or elimination, to simplify what is obscure, unravel what is intricate, reconcile what is involved in discrepancy, or adapt to reason what seems to be above it. Or it deals in mystery, and seeks to charm by a pretence of occult wisdom, and the discovery of recondite senses and harmonies. It was a form of similar mysticism, priding itself in intimate communion with the invisible and the spiritual, that seems to have been introduced at Colosse. How much need, therefore, they had of that full assurance of understanding which the apostle so earnestly wished them to possess. Such illumination was a perfect shield against this delusive rhetoric, with which they might be so artfully and vigorously plied.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Col 2:4. Paul is saying the present things as a warning against false teachers. To beguile means to deceive, and enticing words are those that sound well and are of a persuasive nature. These false teachers used a mixture of philosophy and Judaism in such a way as to mislead unsuspecting disciples away from the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ. Most of this chapter is written to expose both philosophy (so called) and Judaism, especially the latter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Col 2:4. And this I say; referring to Col 2:1-3; the remainder of this verse answering to Col 2:2-3, and Col 2:5 reverting to the sympathy expressed in Col 2:1.
That no one may beguile you, deceive you by sophisms.
With (lit., in) persuading speech. The word here used is compounded of the two occurring in 1Co 2:4 (enticing words E. V.); the idea in both cases is that of insinuating sophistical reasoning, but this expression is the stronger of the two. In classical usage the reference was to argument as contrasted with mathematical demonstration (Light-foot).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Note here, How exceedingly desirous the apostle was, that the Colossians might continue sound in the Christian faith, and be preserved out of the hands of false teachers, who by false arguments, and ensnaring persuasions sought to beguile them, in matters of religion: We are in greater danger from the subtle seducer, than we are from the fiery persecutor; sophistical arguments, and insinuating persuasions, captivate those persons whom violence could never have brought over to their party; therefore is our apostle so earnest with the Colossians, that none should beguile them with inticing words.
Note farther, How our apostle gives another reason for this his solicitous care for them, namely, his fervent affection towards them, notwithstanding his great distance from them, for though not in body, yet in mind he was present with them, and having received from Epaphras an account of the good order and government of their church, and of the stedfastness fo their faith in Christ, the notices thereof were matter of exceeding joy and rejoicing to him: Though absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the Spirit, joying &c.
Learn hence, That a church’s steadfastness in the faith of Christ, and unity amongst themselves in gospel-order, doth render a church a joyful object to all beholders, and particularly to the ministers and ambassadors of Christ, who greatly rejoice therein.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Col 2:4-5. And this, I say Concerning the perfection of Christ and his gospel, and the treasures of wisdom and knowledge contained therein; lest any man should beguile you (see the margin) with enticing words Of human philosophy, and science falsely so called, and should draw you off from a proper attachment to the truth as it is in Jesus. For though I be absent from you in body, yet I am with you in the spirit The apostle not only seems to mean that his heart was much interested in all their concerns, but that God now, by the revelation of his Spirit, gave him a particular view of their circumstances, as he gave Elisha to see Gehazi running after Naaman, and receiving a present from him, 2Ki 5:25-26. Not that there is any reason to suppose that either the apostle or Elisha possessed any permanent gift, whereby they had the knowledge of all the things done in their absence by those in whose conduct they were particularly concerned. The anxiety which St. Paul felt on various occasions, from his uncertainty as to the affairs of different churches, is inconsistent with such a supposition respecting him; and we have no reason to suppose that Elisha possessed a gift of this kind superior to what was conferred on the apostle. But a particular revelation on some certain occasions either of them might have; and such a one the latter seems to have had at this time concerning the state of the church at Colosse; as other apostles probably had respecting other churches, persons, or things. See Act 5:3; Act 5:8. Joying and beholding Or, beholding with joy; your order That is, your orderly walking; and the steadfastness of your faith Which your enemies in vain endeavour to shake.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Col 2:4-23. An Urgent Warning against a Degrading Theosophy.Let them not be led away by false reasonings, however persuasive. They must think of Paul, despite his bodily absence, as being with them in spirit (1Co 5:3 f.*), as a sharer of their joy, and a spectator of the ordered line and steadfast front of their loyalty to Christ. As, then, they received the Messiah, Jesus the Lord, so let them walk in Him, true to the instruction they received, rooted and built up in Him, strong in loyalty, overflowing in thanks-giving. Let them, even so, be on their guard against the very real danger that some person may make a prey of them by means of a philosophy which is mere empty deceit, based not upon Christ, but on human tradition and the doctrine of elemental spirits. The truth is that the entire fulness of the Godhead resides concretely embodied in Christ. To Him as head every rule and authority is subordinate, and it is in Him that they were circumcisedwith a circumcision not wrought by handswhen they stripped off the body of fleshliness in the circumcision-rite of Christ, namely, their burial with Him in baptism; just as in Him and with Him they were also raised, through faith in Gods working who raised Him from the dead. Them also, (spiritually) dead by reason of their trespasses and the uncircumcision of their fleshly state, God brought to life with the bringing to life of Christ, when He forgave us all our trespasses, cancelling the score against us arising from the decrees (of the broken Law). God has taken away the score from between us and Him, and nailed it to Christs Cross. The rulers and authorities He thereby stripped (of their usurped dominion), openly stigmatising them and leading them vanquished in the triumph-train of Christ.
The Colossians must not, therefore, allow themselves to be criticised on the basis of religious rules about food and drink, festivals and Sabbathssuch things only had a value as foreshadowings of Christ; His is the substance to which they pointed. No one must be allowed to pronounce a condemnation against them, wishing . . . on the score of humility or a cultus of the angels, taking his stand upon what he has beheld (in some mystic initiation?), being in fact puffed up without justification by a mind dominated by his own fleshly nature, and so failing to hold fast the Head, in dependence on whom the body as a whole, supplied and united through joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that is of God.
The death they died with Christ set them free from subjection to elemental spirits. Why, then, as if living still in the order of this present world, are they subjected to prohibitionsbased on mere human teachings and commandmentsas to what they may handle, touch, or taste, of things that perish in their very use (and therefore cannot, in the nature of the case, be of permanent spiritual significance)? Religious usages of this kind carry with them, no doubt, a reputation for wisdom, on the score of self-imposed devotions, humility, and bodily asceticism . . . not in any honour . . . with a view to the indulgence of the flesh.
Col 2:5. order and steadfastness are apparently military metaphors.
Col 2:8. The word translated rudiments (stoicheia) means (a) letters of the alphabet, (b) the physical elements, (c) the elements of knowledge. Here and in Gal 4:3* it is often taken as = a mere ABC of religious knowledge. More probably Paul is attacking in both passages a belief in elemental spirits of the Cosmos. Heathen mythology regarded the stars as animated by astral spirits, and late Jewish belief knew of Holy Ones above and angelic Powers ruling on the earth and over the water.
Col 2:9. all the fulness: the completeness of the Divine Beingresides for Paul in Christ bodily, i.e. in concrete actuality, and the cultus of angelic powers is thereby excluded: He is in fact the Head of all such. [The Divine fulness is not split up and distributed among a number of angels, but exists indivisibly in Christ as an organic whole.A. S. P.]
Col 2:11 f. in whom . . . in baptism: cf. Eph 2:11. The Christian form of circumcision is for Paul an ethical and spiritual renewala putting off of the body of the flesh, i.e. the abandonment of the fleshly lifewhich is mediated, not by a literal surgical mutilation, but by baptism, its Christian analogue (cf. Rom 6:3 f.).
Col 2:13. Cf. Eph 2:1; Eph 2:5.
Col 2:14. the bond: the word means a written document; commonly it is here taken to mean the Jewish Law (cf. Eph 2:15). But it seems rather to denote the written record of our transgressions, an indictment based upon the ordinances of the broken Law of God, which told heavily against us until cancelled in virtue of the Cross. The commercial metaphor (cancelling of a debt) as applied to the Atonement thus seems to go back to Paul (cf. Mat 18:23 ff.).out of the way: render out of the midst.
Col 2:15. put off from himself: translate, He stripped or despoiled. The subject of the verbs throughout the passage is God, not Christ; and the principalities and powers are identical with the rudiments of the world in Col 2:8. They have no rightful title to human worship, and the decisive battle of Calvary meant the end of their dominion (cf. 1Co 10:20 f.). The writings of the Apologists (e.g. Justin Martyr) make it plain that the evident power of Christianity to deliver men from servitude to demons was one main source of the strength of its appeal in early times. Cf. Edghill, The Revelation of the Son of God, pp. 70ff.in it: translate in him.
Col 2:17. A shadow is cast by a body and therefore implies that there is a body; but the body belongs to Christ.the things to come: i.e. the new Messianic rgime, which was future from the point of view of Judaism, but is now present; the significance of foreshadowings, e.g. the religious usages of Jewish and pagan asceticism, is, therefore, at an end.
Col 2:18. rob you of your prize: the verb means to decide against a competitor in the games, and should here be translated give judgment against you.voluntary humility: the Greek is really untranslatable, and it is best to assume that there is a lacuna in the text, and that some word or words with the general meaning to gain a reputation for spirituality have dropped out after the word wishing.dwelling in . . . seen: see the paraphrase. There may be a reference to the secret spectacle of some sacred drama revealed to initiates in a quasi-pagan Mystery. The word translated taking his stand upon (mg.) has been shown to be a technical word for entering upon the higher initiation in the Mysteries at Klaros in Phrygia. (See W. M. Ramsay, The Teaching of S. Paul, pp. 288ff.) But the text may be corrupt; various emendations have been proposed.
Col 2:19. Cf. Eph 2:21.
Col 2:23. but are not . . . flesh: it is very doubtful whether this meaning can really be got out of the Greek, and it appears more reasonable to assume a corruption of the text. The general sense is perhaps a warning that ill-judged asceticism may lead to over-indulgence by way of reaction. For Paul himself as an ascetic, see 1Co 9:27.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 4
Enticing words; that is, of false doctrine.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
DIVISION III WARNING AGAINST ERRORS. CH. 2:4-3:4.
SECTION 8. DO NOT FORSAKE THE TEACHING ALREADY RECEIVED. CH. 2:4-7.
This I say in order that no one may delude you with persuasive speech. For, indeed in the flesh I am absent, yet in the spirit I am with you, rejoicing and beholding your order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. As then ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, rooted and being built up in Him and being established by your faith, according as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Or abounding in it with thanksgiving.)
Col 2:4. Hitherto, although in Col 1:9 we have the occasion of Pauls praise and prayer for his readers, viz. the good news about them brought by Epaphras, and although Col 1:23 has suggested a danger of their being moved away from the safe anchorage of their hope, we have had no mention yet of any specific aim of this Epistle. Now for the first time we have a clearly stated and definite aim, viz. to guard the Colossian Christians from erroneous teaching.
I say this: not merely Col 2:3; for as we have seen this was added to explain and justify the words preceding. Moreover, Col 2:5 bears directly on Col 2:1 : and the words mystery of God in Col 2:2 take up similar words in Col 1:26. Thus the words I say this recall the entire teaching of DIV. II., of which indeed Col 2:3 is but a compact summing up. In other words, Pauls invaluable exposition of the nature and work of the Son of God was given, not merely to instruct and edify, but as a safeguard against persuasive error. A good example for us. The only real safeguard against the manifold religious errors is an intelligent and comprehensive knowledge of the central doctrines of the Gospel. Such expositions of truth have abiding worth even when the errors they were designed to combat have passed utterly away. Pauls method of defence makes all the difference between the living epistle before us and the obsolete Refutation of Irenus.
Delude you: reason you away from the line. It is a modification of Pauls favourite word reckon in Rom 2:3; Rom 2:26, etc.; and denotes perverse reckoning.
With persuasive-speech: cp. Rom 16:18, by means of smooth-speech and fine-speech deceive the hearts of the innocent; 1Co 2:4 persuasive words of wisdom. This persuasiveness does not in itself imply error. The error lies in the word delude. What specific delusion Paul has in view, we must learn from the specific warnings following.
Col 2:5. For if etc.; explains the interest in the readers which prompted the foregoing warning, and thus tacitly and very kindly supports it.
Flesh spirit: favourite contrast of Paul. It is practically the same as body and spirit in 1Co 5:3. While the weak and mortal flesh of Paul lingered in prison at Rome, the eye of his spirit was fixed on the Christians at Coloss.
Rejoicing and beholding: as though the narrative of Epaphras at once gave Paul joy; and led him to contemplate with abiding interest his readers military regularity and solidity.
Order: same word and sense in 1Co 14:40; cognate word in 1Co 15:23 : a not uncommon military term.
Firmness: or better, firm-front. It denotes something made firm.
Of your faith in Christ: the solid front which your faith enables you to present. Cp. Act 16:5 : made firm by faith. The Christians at Coloss held their position as good soldiers: and their faith in Christ enabled them to present to every enemy an immoveable line of battle. The military tone of this verse suggests that looseness in faith exposes Christians to disastrous overthrow. The phrase rendered faith in Christ is not found elsewhere in the N.T.: but we have faith towards God in 1Th 1:8; Phm 1:5; and a similar phrase believe in God or in Christ in Rom 10:14; Php 1:29; 1Pe 1:8; 1Pe 1:21, and frequently in the Fourth Gospel.
The truthfulness of Paul compels us to accept these words as complete proof that the Christians at Coloss had not yet been actually led away by the delusion against which he now warns them. If so, this verse is not only a courteous, but a necessary, recognition, in view of the warnings which follow, of their loyal adherence to the truth.
Col 2:6. An exhortation, based on Col 2:5, and followed in Col 2:7 by collateral details of manner.
Received: same word in Joh 1:11, His own people received Him not.
Frequently used by Paul in reference to the Gospel he received from Christ: 1Co 11:23; 1Co 15:1; 1Co 15:3; Gal 1:9; Gal 1:12. They who welcome the good news of salvation thereby receive Christ Himself to be their Lord and their life. As then, or inasmuch then as, ye received etc.: practical application of Col 2:5. That they have received Christ and have thus obtained spiritual solidity, is good reason why they should walk in Him: cp. Col 4:5, walk in wisdom; Eph 5:2, in love. Let the personality of Christ be the encompassing and guiding and controlling element of every step in life. Cp. Gal 5:25 : If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. A good beginning is reason for continuing in the same path.
Col 2:7. Collateral details about the walk in life which Paul desires for his readers.
Rooted, same word and form in Eph 3:18. It suggests stability and nourishment and life derived from inward contact with Christ: in Him.
Built-up: same composite word in Eph 2:20; 1Co 3:10; 1Co 3:12; 1Co 3:14; Jud 1:20. It calls attention to the foundation on which the building rises. This second metaphor adds the idea of stability derived from the mutual cohesion of various component parts. [Notice a conspicuous change of tenses. The Greek perfect rooted denotes an abiding result of a past event: the present being-built-up describes a process now going on. Our walk in Him is a present result of our having first taken root in Christ; and continues only so long as we retain our hold of Him. And, while we walk in Him, our spiritual life, which derives stability from union with our fellow-Christians, makes progress day by day like the rising walls of a building.] Each metaphor supplements the other. The former suggests organic life, and nourishment: the latter suggests strength derived from union of various parts. The words in Him forsake the metaphor of a building, in order to recall the foregoing exhortation, walk in Him, and to keep before us the inwardness of that union with Christ from which the members of His Church derive cohesion and stability. A condition and accompaniment of our walk in Christ is that we retain our inward grasp of Him and that by compact union with our fellows the Christian life makes daily progress in us.
Being-made firm by faith: another collateral detail supporting the foregoing metaphor by singling out, and stating in plain language its chief element, viz. immoveable firmness, and by pointing to the channel through which spiritual firmness comes, viz. faith.
[The dative of instrument, as in Col 1:10 is more likely here than that of limitation. For we need to know the channel through which comes the firmness implied in built-up rather than the particular element of our spiritual life in which that firmness is to be found: for evidently the whole man is made firm in Christ.] They who rest on the promises of God are themselves immoveable. These last words recall the firmness of your faith in Col 2:5.
According as ye were taught: the directive rule of their faith: cp. Col 1:7, according as ye learnt from Epaphras. The teaching which already has brought them out of darkness into light is to be the guide of their present faith. Similar argument in Gal 3:3. Thanksgiving is to be associated with faith; as in Php 4:6 with prayer. And so abundant are the reasons for gratitude that Paul prescribes for his readers an overflow of thanks: abounding with thanksgiving: cp. Php 4:6.
Paul reminds the Christians at Coloss that they have already accepted Christ as their Lord, and bids them now walk in Him they have received. In other words, he urges that their outward life correspond with the beginning of their Christian profession. There must be continued inward grasp of Christ, firm cohesion with their fellows and progress, and the solidity which faith gives; all this on the lines laid down by those who have led them to Christ, and mingled with thanks to God.
As yet we have learnt nothing about the specific danger which prompted Pauls warning, except that it is one against which the foregoing exposition of the dignity of Christ will shield his readers, and one which threatens to lead them away from the path which at their conversion they entered. We wait for more definite information about the specific and plausible error Paul has in view.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
“And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.”
Paul believes as I do that you the listener should question everything I say. We ought to compare what we hear with the Word of God and be sure that all we hear is true. Paul speaks to the idea of being enticed with false teaching often in his epistles. (Gal 1:7-9) Be gentle when you disagree with me, but be sure you have Scripture on your side.
Lenski mentions that this phrase could be translated “to cheat by false argument” – I will never attempt this, but be sure you check out what I say anyway – just in case I get side tracked from the truth.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
2:4 {3} And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with {e} enticing words.
(3) A passing over to the treatise following, against the corruptions of Christianity.
(e) With a planned type of talk made to persuade.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul’s description of the Colossian church pictures a company of well-disciplined soldiers standing at attention in straight lines. The Greek word stereoma occurs only here in the New Testament and means "stability."
It ". . . points out that feature in the faith of the Colossians which specially commended it to the notice and eulogy of the apostle, to wit, its unyielding nature, or the stiffness of its adherence to its one object-Christ." [Note: Eadie, p. 123.]
So far the believers were holding their position against the false teachers, but Paul feared that this condition might change. He did not want the false teachers to talk them into believing something false by deceptive arguments.
"The implication that Paul can actually see the state of affairs at Colossae (’rejoicing and seeing your good order . . .’) is, of course, intended more as an expression of what he would hope to see were it possible." [Note: Dunn, p. 134.]
"This final recall to faith forms an inclusio with Col 1:4 and thus brackets the whole of the intervening thanksgiving and personal statement as an exposition of that faith . . ." [Note: Ibid., p. 135.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 2
CONCILIATORY AND HORTATORY TRANSITION TO POLEMICS
Col 2:4-7 (R.V.)
NOTHING needs more delicacy of hand and gentleness of heart than the administration of warning or reproof, especially when directed against errors of religious opinion. It is sure to do harm unless the person reproved is made to feel that it comes from true kindly interest in him., and does full justice to his honesty. Warning so easily passes into scolding, and sounds to the warned so like it even when the speaker does not mean it so, that there is special need to modulate the voice very carefully.
So in this context, the Apostle has said much about his deep interest in the Colossian Church, and has dwelt on the passionate earnestness of his solicitude for them, his conflict of intercession and sympathy, and the large sweep, of his desires for their good. But he does not feel that he can venture to begin his warnings till he has said something more, so as to conciliate them still further, and to remove from their minds other thoughts unfavourable to the sympathetic reception of his words. One can fancy some Colossians saying, “What need is there for all this anxiety? Why should Paul be in such a taking about us? He is exaggerating our danger, and doing scant justice to our Christian character.” Nothing stops the ear to the voice of warning more surely than a feeling that it is pitched in too solemn a key, and fails to recognise the good.
So before he goes further, he gathers up his motives in giving the following admonitions, and gives his estimate of the condition of the Colossians, in the first two of the verses now under consideration. All that he has been saying has been said not so much because he thinks that they have gone wrong, but because he knows that there are heretical teachers at work, who may lead them astray with plausible lessons. He is not combating errors which have already swept away the faith of the Colossian Christians, but putting them on their guard against such as threaten them. He is not trying to pump the water out of a water-logged vessel, but to stop a little leak which is in danger of gaping wider. And, in his solicitude, he has much confidence and is encouraged to speak because, absent from them as he is, he has a vivid assurance, which gladdens him, of the solidity and firmness of their faith.
So with this distinct definition of the precise danger which he feared, and this soothing assurance of his glad confidence in their steadfast order, the Apostle at last opens his batteries. The 6th and 7th verses (Col 2:6-7) are the first shot fired, the beginning of the monitions so long and carefully prepared for. They contain a general exhortation, which may be taken as the keynote for the polemical portion of the Epistle, which occupies the rest of the chapter.
I. We have then, first, the purpose of the Apostles previous self-revelation. “This I say”-this, namely, which is contained in the preceding verses, the expression of his solicitude, and perhaps even more emphatically, the declaration of Christ as the revealed secret of God, the inexhaustible storehouse of all wisdom and knowledge. The purpose of the Apostle, then, in his foregoing words has been to guard the Colossians against the danger to which they were exposed, of being deceived and led astray by “persuasiveness of speech.” That expression is not necessarily used in a bad sense, but here it evidently has a tinge of censure, and implies some doubt both of the honesty of the speakers and of the truthfulness of their words. Here we have an important piece of evidence as to the then condition of the Colossian Church. There were false teachers busy amongst them who belonged in some sense to the Christian community. But probably these were not Colossians, but wandering emissaries of a Judaising Gnosticism, while certainly the great mass of the Church was untouched by their speculations. They were in danger of getting bewildered, and being deceived, that is to say, of being induced to accept certain teaching because of its speciousness, without seeing all its bearings, or even knowing its real meaning. So error ever creeps into the Church. Men are caught by something fascinating in some popular teaching, and follow it without knowing where it will lead them. By slow degrees its tendencies are disclosed, and at last the followers of the heresiarch wake to find that everything which they once believed and prized has dropped from their creed.
We may learn here, too, the true safeguard against specious errors. Paul thinks that he can best fortify these simple-minded disciples against all harmful teaching by exalting his Master and urging the inexhaustible significance of His person and message. To learn the full meaning and preciousness of Christ is to be armed against error. The positive truth concerning Him, by preoccupying mind and heart, guards beforehand against the most specious teachings. If you fill the coffer with gold, nobody will want, and there will be no room for, pinchbeck. A living grasp of Christ will keep us from being swept away by the current of prevailing popular opinion, which is always much more likely to be wrong than right, and is sure to be exaggerated and one-sided at the best. A personal consciousness of His power and sweetness will give an instinctive repugnance to teaching that would lower His dignity and debase His work. If He be the centre and anchorage of all our thoughts, we shall not be tempted to go elsewhere in search of the “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” which “are hid in Him.” He who has found the one pearl of great price, needs no more to go seeking goodly pearls, but only day by day more completely to lose self, and give up all else, that he may win more and more of Christ his All. If we keep our hearts and minds in communion with our Lord, and have experience of His preciousness, that will preserve us from many a snare, will give us a wisdom, beyond much logic, will solve for us many of the questions most hotly debated today, and will show us that many more are unimportant and uninteresting to us. And even if we should be led to wrong conclusions on some matters, “if we drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt us.”
II. We see here the joy which blended with the anxiety of the solitary prisoner, and encourage him to warn the Colossians against impending dangers to their faith. We need not follow the grammatical commentators in their discussion of how Paul comes to invert the natural order here, and to say “joying and beholding,” instead of “beholding and rejoicing,” as we should expect. No one doubts that what he saw in spirit was the cause of his joy. The old man in his prison, loaded with many cares, compelled to be inactive in the cause which was more to him. than life, is yet full of spirit and buoyancy. His prison letters all partake of that “rejoicing in the Lord,” which is the keynote of one of them. Old age and apparent failure, and the exhaustion of long labours, and the disappointments and sorrows which almost always gather like evening clouds round a life as it sinks in the west, had not power to quench his fiery energy or to blunt his keen interest in all the Churches. His cell was like the centre of a telephonic system. Voices spoke from all sides. Every Church was connected with it, and messages were perpetually being brought. Think of him sitting there, eagerly listening, and thrilling with sympathy at each word, so self-oblivious was he, so swallowed up were all personal ends in the care for the Churches, and in the swift, deep fellow feeling with them! Love and interest quickened his insight, and though he was far away, he had them so vividly before him that he was as if a spectator. The joy which he had in the thought of them made him dwell on the thought-so the apparently inverted order of the words may be the natural one and he may have looked all the more fixedly because it gladdened him to look.
What did he see? “Your order.” That is unquestionably a military metaphor, drawn probably from his experiences of the Praetorians, while in captivity. He had plenty of opportunities of studying both the equipment of the single legionary, who, in the 6th chapter of Ephesians, sat for his portrait to the prisoner to whom he was chained, and also the perfection of discipline in the whole which made the legion so formidable. It was not a multitude, but a unit, “moving altogether if it move at all,” as if animated by one will. Paul rejoices to know that the Colossian Church was thus welded into a solid unity.
Further, he beholds “the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.” This may be a continuation of the military metaphor, and may mean “the solid front, the close phalanx” which your faith presents. But whether we suppose the figure to be carried on or drooped, we must, I think, recognise that this second point refers rather to the inward condition than to the outward discipline of the Colossians.
Here then is set forth a lofty ideal of the Church, in two respects. First there is, outwardly, an ordered disciplined array; and secondly there is a steadfast faith.
As to the first, Paul was no martinet, anxious about the pedantry of the parade ground, but he knew the need of organisation and drill. Any body of men united in order to carry out a specific purpose have to be organised. That means a place for every man, and every man in his place. It means cooperation to one common end, and therefore division of function and subordination. Order does not merely mean obedience to authority. There may be equal “order” under widely different forms of polity. The legionaries were drawn up in close ranks, the light-armed skirmishers more loosely. In the one case the phalanx was more and the individual less; in the other there was more play given to the single man, and less importance to corporate action; but the difference between them was not that of order and disorder, but that of two systems, each organised but on somewhat different principles and for different purposes. A loosely linked chain is as truly a chain as a rigid one. The main requirement for such “order” as gladdened the Apostle is conjoint action to one end, with variety of office and unity of spirit.
Some Churches give more weight to the principle of authority; others to that of individuality. They may criticise each others polity, but the former has no right to reproach the latter as being necessarily defective in “order.” Some Churches are all drill, and their favourite idea of discipline is, Obey them that have the rule over you. The Churches of looser organisation, on the other hand, are no doubt in danger of making too little of organisation. But both need that all their members should be more penetrated by the sense of unity, and should fill each his place in the work of the body. It was far easier to secure the true order-a place and a task for every man and every man in his place and at his task in the small homogeneous communities of apostolic times than it is now, when men of such different social position, education, and ways of thinking are found in the same Christian community. The proportion of idlers in all Churches is a scandal and a weakness. However highly organised and officered a Church may be, no joy would fill an apostles heart in beholding it, if the mass of its members had no share in its activities. Every society of professing Christians should be like a man of wars crew, each of whom knows the exact inch where he has to stand when the whistle sounds, and the precise thing he has to do in the gun drill.
But the perfection of discipline is not enough. That may stiffen into routine if there be not something deeper. We want life even more than order. The description of the soldiers who set David on the throne should describe Christs army-“men that could keep rank, they were not of double heart.” They had discipline and had learned to accommodate their stride to the length of their comrades step; but they had whole-hearted enthusiasm, which was better. Both are needed. If there be not courage and devotion there is nothing worth disciplining. The Church that has the most. complete order and not also steadfastness of faith will be like the German armies, all pipe clay and drill, which ran like hares before the ragged shoeless levies whom the first French Revolution flung across the border with a fierce enthusiasm blazing in their hearts. So the Apostle beholds with joy the steadfastness of the Colossians faith toward Christ.
If the rendering “steadfastness” be adopted as in the Revised Version, the phrase will be equivalent to the “firmness which characterises or belongs to your faith.” But some of the best commentators deny that this meaning of the word is ever found, and propose “foundation” (that which is made steadfast). The meaning then will either be “the firm foundation (for your lives) which consists of your faith,” or, more probably, “the firm foundation which your faith has.” He rejoices, seeing that their faith towards Jesus Christ has a basis unshaken by assaults. Such a rock foundation, and consequent steadfastness, must faith have, if it is to be worthy of the name and to manifest its true power. A tremulous faith may, thank God! be a true: faith, but the very idea of faith implies solid assurance and fixed confidence. Our faith should be able to resist pressure and to keep its. ground against assaults and gainsaying. It should not be like a childs card castle, that the light breath of a scornful laugh will throw down, but
“a tower of strength That stands foursquare to all the winds that blow.”
We should seek to make it so, nor let the fluctuations of our own hearts cause it to fluctuate. We should try so to control the ebb and flow of religious emotion that it may always be near high water with our faith, a tideless but not stagnant sea. We should oppose a settled conviction and unalterable confidence to the noisy voices which would draw us away.
And that we may do so we must keep up a true and close communion with Jesus Christ. The faith which is ever going out “towards” Him, as the sunflower turns sunwards, will ever draw from Him such blessed gifts that doubt or distrust will be impossible. If we keep near our Lord and wait expectant on Him, He will increase our faith and make our “hearts fixed, trusting in the Lord.” So a greater than Paul may speak even to us, as He walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, words which from His lips will be praise indeed: “Though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Me.”
III. We have here the exhortation which comprehends all duty and covers the whole ground of Christian belief and practice.
“Therefore”-the following exhortation is based upon the warning and commendation of the preceding verses. There is first a wide general injunction. “As ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,” i.e., let your active life be in accord with what you learned and obtained when you first became Christians.
Then this exhortation is defined or broken up into four particulars in the following clauses, which explain in detail how it is to be kept.
The general exhortation is to a true Christian walk. The main force lies upon the “as.” The command is to order all life in accordance with the early lessons and acquisitions. The phrase “ye received Christ Jesus the Lord” presents several points requiring notice. It is obviously parallel with “as ye were taught” in the next verse; so that it was from their first teachers, and probably from Epaphras {Col 1:7} that they had “received Christ.” So, then, what we receive, when, from human lips, we hear the gospel and accept it, is not merely the word about the Saviour, but the Saviour Himself. This expression of our text is no mere loose or rhetorical mode of speech, but a literal and blessed truth. Christ is the sum of all Christian teaching and, where the message of His love is welcomed, He Himself comes in spiritual and real presence, and dwells in the spirit. The solemnity of the full name of our Saviour in this connection is most significant. Paul reminds the Colossians, in view of the teaching which degraded the person and curtailed the work of Christ, that they had received the man Jesus, the promised Christ, the universal Lord. As if he had said, Remember whom you received in your conversion-Christ, the Messiah, anointed, that is, fitted by the unmeasured possession of the Divine Spirit, to fulfil all prophecy and to be the worlds deliverer. Remember Jesus, the man, our brother; -therefore listen to no misty speculations nor look to whispered mysteries nor to angel hierarchies for knowledge of God or for help in conflict. Our gospel is not theory spun out of mens brains, but is, first and foremost, the history of a brothers life and death. You received Jesus, so you are delivered from the tyranny of these unsubstantial and portentous systems, and relegated to the facts of a human life for your knowledge of God. You received Jesus Christ as Lord. He was proclaimed as Lord of men, angels, and the universe, Lord and Creator of the spiritual and material worlds, Lord of history and providence. Therefore you need not give heed to those teachers who would fill the gulf between men and God with a crowd of powers and rulers. You have all that your mind or heart or will can need in the human Divine Jesus, who is the Christ and the Lord for you and all men. You have received Him in the all-sufficiency of His revealed nature and offices. You have Him for your very own. Hold fast that which you have, and let no man take this your crown and treasure. The same exhortation has emphatic application to the conflicts of today. The Church has had Jesus set forth as Christ and Lord. His manhood, the historical reality of His Incarnation with all its blessed issues, His Messiahship as the fulfiller of prophecy and symbol, designated and fitted by the fulness of the Spirit, to be mans deliverer, His rule and authority over all creatures and events have been taught, and the tumults of present unsettlement make it hard and needful to keep true to that threefold belief, and to let nothing rob us of any of the demerits of the full gospel which lies in the august name, Christ Jesus the Lord.
To that gospel, to that Lord, the walk, the active life, is to be conformed, and the manner thereof is more fully explained in the following clauses.
“Rooted and built up in Him.” Here again we have the profound “in Him,” which appears so frequently in this and in the companion Epistle to the Ephesians, and which must be allowed its proper force, as expressing a most real indwelling of the believer in Christ, if the depth of the meaning is to be sounded.
Paul drives his fiery chariot through rhetorical proprieties, and never shrinks from “mixed metaphors” if they more vigorously express his thought. Here we have three incongruous ones close on each others heels. The Christian is to walk, to be rooted like a tree, to be built up like a house. What does the incongruity matter to Paul as the stream of thought and feeling hurries him along?
The tenses of the verbs, too, are studiously and significantly varied. Fully rendered they would be “having been rooted and being builded up.” The one is a past act done once for all, the effects of which are permanent; the other is a continuous resulting process which is going on now. The Christian has been rooted in Jesus Christ at the beginning of his Christian course. His faith has brought him into living contact with the Saviour, who has become as the fruitful soil into which the believer sends his roots, and both feeds and anchors there. The familiar image of the first Psalm may have been in the writers mind, and naturally recurs to ours. If we draw nourishment and stability from Christ, round whom the roots of our being twine and cling, we shall flourish and grow and bear fruit. No man can do without some person beyond himself on whom to repose, nor can any of us find in ourselves or on earth the sufficient soil for our growth. We are like seedlings dropped on some great rock, which send their rootlets down the hard stone and are stunted till they reach the rich leaf mould at its base. We blindly feel through all the barrenness of the world for something into which our roots may plunge that we may be nourished and firm. In Christ we may be “like a tree planted by the river of water”; out of Him we are “as the chaff,” rootless, lifeless, profitless, and swept at last by the wind from the threshing floor. The choice is before every man-either to be rooted in Christ by faith, or to be rootless.
“Being built up in Him.” The gradual continuous building up of the structure of a Christian character is doubly expressed in this word by the present tense which points to a process and by the prefixed preposition represented by “up,” which points to the successive laying Of course of masonry upon course. We are the architects of our own characters. If our lives are based on Jesus Christ as their foundation, and every deed is in vital connection with Him, as at once its motive, its pattern, its power, its aim, and its reward, then we shall build holy and fair lives, which will be temples. Men do not merely grow as a leaf which “grows green and broad, and takes no care.” The other metaphor of a building needs to be taken into account, to complete the former. Effort, patient continuous labour must be put forth. More than “forty and six years is this temple in building.” A stone at a time is fitted into its place, and so after much toil and many years, as in the case of some mediaeval cathedral unfinished for centuries, the topstone is brought forth at last. This choice, too, is before all men-to build on Christ and so to build for eternity, or on sand and so to be crushed below the ruins of their fallen houses.
“Stablished in your faith, even as ye were taught.” This is apparently simply a more definite way of putting substantially the same thoughts as in the former clauses. Possibly the meaning is “stablished by faith,” the Colossians faith being the instrument of their establishment. But the Revised Version is probably right in its rendering, “stablished in,” or as to, “your faith.” Their faith, as Paul had just been saying, was steadfast, but it needed yet increased firmness. And this exhortation, as it were, translates the previous ones into more homely language, that if any man stumbled at the mysticism of the thoughts there, he might grasp the plain practicalness here. If we are established and confirmed in our faith, we shall be rooted and built up in Jesus, for it is faith which joins us to Him, and its increase measures our growth in and into Him.
There then is a very plain practical issue of these deep thoughts of union with Jesus. A progressive increase of our faith is the condition of all Christian progress. The faith which is already the firmest, and by its firmness may gladden an Apostle, is still capable of and needs strengthening. Its range can be enlarged, its tenacity increased, its power over heart and life reinforced. The eye of faith is never so keen but that it may become more longsighted; its grasp never so close but that it may be tightened; its realisation never so solid but that it may be more substantial; its authority never so great but that it may be made more absolute. This continual strengthening of faith is the most essential form of a Christians effort at self-improvement. Strengthen faith and you strengthen all graces; for it measures our reception of Divine help. And the furthest development which faith can attain should ever be sedulously kept in harmony with the initial teaching-“even as ye were taught.” Progress does not consist in dropping the early truths of Jesus Christ the Lord for newer wisdom and more speculative religion, but in discovering ever deeper lessons and larger powers in these rudiments which are likewise the last and highest lessons which men can learn.
Further, as the daily effort of the believing soul ought to be to strengthen the quality of its faith, so it should be to increase its amount-“abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Or if we adopt the reading of the Revised Version, we shall omit the “in it,” and find here only an exhortation to thanksgiving. That is in any case the main idea of the clause, which adds to the former the thought that thanksgiving is an inseparable accompaniment of vigorous Christian life. It is to be called forth, of course, mainly by the great gift of Christ, in whom we are rooted and builded, and, in Pauls judgment, it is the very spring of Christian progress.
That constant temper of gratitude implies a habitual presence to the mind of Gods great mercy in His unspeakable gift, a continual glow of heart as we gaze, a continual appropriation of that gift for our very own, and a continual outflow of our hearts love to the Incarnate and Immortal Love. Such thankfulness will bind us to glad obedience, and will give swiftness to the foot and eagerness to the will, to run in the way of Gods commandments. It is like genial sunshine, all flowers breathe perfume and fruits ripen under its influence. It is the fire which kindles the sacrifice of life and makes it go up in fragrant incense clouds, acceptable to God. The highest nobleness of which man is capable is reached when, moved by the mercies of God, we yield ourselves living sacrifices, thank offerings to Him Who yielded Himself the sin offering for us. The life which is an influenced by thanksgiving will be pure, strong, happy, in its continual counting of its gifts, and in its thoughts of the Giver, and not least happy and beautiful in its glad surrender of itself to Him who has given Himself for and to it. The noblest offering that we can bring, the only recompense which Christ asks, is that our hearts and our lives should say, We thank thee, O Lord. “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,” and the continual thanksgiving will ensure continuous growth in our Christian character, and a constant increase in the strength and depth of our faith.