Colossians 1:10

περιπατῆσαι. Probably epexegetic, see Acts 15:10; Luke 1:54; 1 Samuel 12:23; Pss. Sol. 2:28. It may be due to the influence of Hebrew, in which both the construct (e.g. Psalms 78:18) and the absolute (Jeremiah 22:19) forms of the infinitive may be used to expand a preceding statement. In English we can hardly use the infinitive in this sense, and must translate “walking.”

Observe that περιπατεῖν in its metaphorical meaning (also Colossians 2:6; Colossians 3:7; Colossians 4:5), self-evident as it appears to us, seems never to have been so used by Greeks uninfluenced by Semitic thought (though in Thuc. III. 64. 7 we find μετὰ γὰρ Ἀθηναίων ἄδικον ὁδὸν ἰόντων ἐχωρήσατε, and parallels for ἀναστρέφομαι and ἀναστροφή are quoted in Deissmann, Bibl. Studies, pp. 88, 194, from the Inscriptions). But in Hebrew it is very common (e.g. Psalms 26:11) and the metaphor even gives the name to the strictly legal part of Rabbinic lore, the Halacha, i.e. the “walk.”

ἀξίως. Observe that while περιπατεῖν is almost entirely Semitic ἀξίως is almost entirely Greek. No Hebrew word quite expresses the idea (cf. שׁוה Proverbs 3:15; Proverbs 8:11; Esther 7:4). Therefore Delitzsch can only render our passage by a free paraphrase, כַּטּוֹב בְּעֵינֵי הָאָדוֹן, “to walk according to that which is good in the eyes of the Lord and according to all His good pleasure.” Had we nothing else whereby to tell the nature of the education of the Apostle the combination περιπατῆσαι� would give us the clue to it being Graeco-Semitic.

For ἀξίως τοῦ κυρίου compare, besides the passages quoted above, Wis 3:5; Sir 14:11 (Greek only), and the phrases ἄξιος, and ἀξίως, τοῦ θεοῦ (τῶν θεῶν) in inscriptions at Pergamum (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 248).

It is perhaps worth noting that the Peshitta here reads “that ye may walk as is becoming, and may please God,” i.e. omitting πᾶσαν and recombining the other words. Did it mistranslate from the Latin “ut ambuletis digne Deo per omnia placentes”?

τοῦ κυρίου. Though Theodoret (in Ellicott) understands this of God (i.e. presumably the Father), and the analogy of 1 Thessalonians 2:12 (quoted supra) confirms it, yet “St Paul’s common, and apparently universal, usage requires us to understand ὁ Κύριος of Christ” (Lightfoot). Moule rightly points out that “such alternative expressions indicate how truly for St Paul the Father and the Son are Persons of the same Order of being.” St Paul is thinking of the Lord Jesus as the Master in glory, who ought to be worthily represented by us His servants here, and takes pleasure, or otherwise, in our behaviour.

εἰς. The final object of knowledge and a godly life is to please God.

πᾶσαν, i.e. in every case, see Colossians 1:9 πάσῃ.

ἀρεσκίαν†. ἀρέσκειν θεῷ (τ. κυρίῳ) in Romans 8:8; 1 Corinthians 7:32; 1 Thessalonians 2:15, and especially 1 Thessalonians 4:1; cf. ἀρεστός John 8:29, and 1 John 3:22.

ἀρεσκία is not found in classical writers of the best period, but in Theophrastus, Char. 2 (5), Polybius 31. 26. 5, Diod. 13. 53 it means “complaisance,” “obsequiousness.” Yet in an inscription given in Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 224, χάριν τῆς εἰς τὴν πόλιν� it evidently has a good sense, and it is repeatedly used by Philo of pleasing God, as here; e.g. Quis rer. div. her. 24 (I. p. 490, § 123, Wendland) ὡς� (τοῦ Θεοῦ) καὶ δεχομένου τὰς ψυχῆς ἑκουσίου�; de Vict. Off. 8 (II. p. 527) διὰ πασῶν ἰέναι τῶν εἰς�. In ἀνθρωπάρεσκοι (Colossians 3:22) on the contrary the former meaning is apparent; see note there.

ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ�. Perhaps to be taken with the preceding words. So R.V.mg. “to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, in every good work.” The words would thus expand the thought of πᾶσαν. But the sentence then becomes heavy and even somewhat tautological. Hence it is better to take the words closely with καρποφοροῦντες. The whole phrase is then, no doubt, explanatory of εἰς πᾶσαν�. So Chrysostom, Πῶς δὲ, πᾶσαν�; Ἐν παντʼ ἔργῳ�, καὶ αὐξανόμενοι ἐν (sic) τῇ ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ.

καρποφοροῦντες, “bearing fruit in every good work.” See Colossians 1:6 note. Surely not dependent on πληρωθῆτε (Beng., B. Weiss), but on περιπατῆσαι.

καὶ αὐξανόμενοι, closely with καρποφοροῦντες, as in Colossians 1:6 (see note).

τῇ ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ. “By the knowledge of God.” With αὐξανόμενοι only, for bearing fruit by knowledge would be too strained a metaphor. It is probably the instrumental dative “representing the knowledge of God as the dew or the rain which nurtures the growth of the plant; Deuteronomy 32:2; Hosea 14:5” (Lightfoot). It is indeed possible to take it as the dative denoting the attribute in respect of which anything takes place, Colossians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 14:20; Acts 16:5; Philippians 2:8. So R.V. “increasing in the knowledge of God” (verbally like A.V. which reads εἰς τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν), but this seems hardly probable after πληρωθῆτε τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν in Colossians 1:9.