Colossians 1:23

if With a certain emphasis in the Greek, pressingon the saints the need of watching and prayer; a need which leaves untouched in their proper sphere the sure promises of the "final perseverance" of the saints.

"If we look to stand in the faith of the sons of God, we must hourly, continually, be providing and setting ourselves to strive … To our own safety our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever and ever be that mother's child whose faith hath made him the child of God." (Hooker, Sermon of Faith, at the end; see the whole Sermon.) See our notes on Philippians 3:11; Philippians 4:3. The emphatic caution here has manifest reference to special dangers at Colossæ.

continue in Abide by, adhere to. So Lightfoot, having regard to the special construction of the Greek.

the faith So A.V. and R.V. Lightfoot says "perhaps - yourfaith" rather than - thefaith"." And the contrast-parallel Romans 11:23 ("if they abide not still in unbelief") is distinctly in favour of this. The Colossians were to persist, for their very life, in the Divine simplicity of believing.

grounded Lit., founded, built on a foundation; a perfect participle. Cp. Ephesians 3:17, where the basis is "love;" and Matthew 7:25, where it is "a rock," the truth of Christ. Ephesians 3:17 offers an instructive parallel, connecting (as this passage does) "faith" with "foundation." It is as believing that the Christian enjoys the fixityof the word, and of the love, of God.

settled The Greek appears elsewhere only 1 Corinthians 7:37; 1 Corinthians 15:58. Usage suggests the special thought of settled purpose;resulting here from a settled rest on eternal truth. Cp. 1 Peter 2:6-9.

be not moved away Omit - be." The Greek (" moved away") is a present participle, and suggests a state of chronic or frequent unsettlement, as new allurements away from the truth beset them. Cp. Ephesians 4:14.

the hope "That blissful hope, even the appearing of the glory, &c." (Titus 2:13); "the hope of glory" (below, Colossians 1:27).

of the gospel, which ye have heard So connect. "The hope" revealed in the message of apostolic truth, brought them by Epaphras in the power of the Spirit, this, and no rival to it, was to be their anchorage. Better, which ye heard, when you were evangelized and converted.

and which was preached Omit "and." Which was proclaimed; lit., "heralded." Cp., for this verb with "the gospel," e.g. Matthew 4:23; Gal 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:9. The time-reference of "was" is, so to speak, ideal; it "was" done when the Saviour, in His accomplished victory, bade it be done (Mark 16:15).

to every creature which More lit., in all the creation which, &c. "The expression … must not be limited to man," says Lightfoot. But it is difficult to accept this. "All creation," in the largest sense, shall indeed in its way share the blessings of our salvation (see e.g. Romans 8:19-22; and cp. Revelation 5:13). But the thought here, and Mark 16:15, is of proclamation, and reception by faith;in view of which we cannot, in any intelligible sense, bring in "rocks and stones and trees." Context surely limits the word to "our fellow-creatures," in the human sense.

under heaven An hyperbole, in the technical sense; a verbalbut not therefore realexaggeration, the excess of the phrase being meant only to leave a just impression of the surprise of the fact. See above on Colossians 1:6 (" in all the world"). After all, if our remark on "was preached," just above, is right, this phrase like that is ideal, and in that respect not hyperbolical.

For the exact phrase cp. e.g. Genesis 1:9; Genesis 6:17; Genesis 7:19; Deuteronomy 2:25; Acts 2:5; Acts 4:12.

whereof I Paul am made, &c. Became, when the Lord called me to it. The same phrase occurs Ephesians 3:7. He emphasizes his ownpart and lot in the ministry of the Gospel, as he has just emphasized that Gospel itself as the veritable message of God, alone authentic amidst all false Gospels. So he asserts his own commission, authentic amidst all false evangelists. Cp. for instances of a similar emphatic Ego, 2 Corinthians 10:1; Galatians 5:2; Ephesians 3:1 (with note in this Series); Philemon 1:19.

a minister Diâconos. See above on Colossians 1:7.