Colossians 1:6

is come unto you Lit., "is present to you;" but the A.V. and R.V. are idiomatically right.

as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth, &c. The word "and" here is textually doubtful; the adverse evidence though not decisive is considerable. If it is omitted, the rendering will be, as also in all the world it is fruit-bearing; and the meaning will be, practically, "it has reached you, as it reaches others everywhere, as a secret of fruit-bearing power."

" In all the world:" "in all the cosmos," as Mark 16:15. Cp. Matthew 4:8; Matthew 26:13; and, for a similar hyperbole, Romans 1:8, and below, Colossians 1:23. Here the cosmos, which sometimes means the universe at large (Acts 17:24), sometimes human society (1 Corinthians 5:10), sometimes man as alienated with all his interests from God (Galatians 6:14; 1 John 3:1; 1 John 3:13, etc.), is used by a perfectly lawful liberty of speech for space indefinitely large, places indefinitely many. The readers would well understand that Paul meant not that the Gospel had reached every spot of Europe, Asia, and Africa, but that wherever, in the already vast extent of its range among men, it had come, it proved always its proper power.

" Bringeth forth fruit:" the Greek verb is (here only in Greek literature, apparently) in the middle voice, and this indicates specially the innate, congenital, fruit-bearing power of the Gospel. It is "essentially a reproductive organism, a plant whose seed is in itself" (Lightfoot). Hence the Christian is, if we may put it so, nothing if not a fruit-bearer(Matthew 7:17-20; Luke 13:6; John 15:2-8; John 15:16; Romans 6:22; Galatians 5:22; Philippians 1:11; James 3:17).

Here add, with full MS. and other evidence, and increaseth, or, in view of the reading advocated above, and increasing. The noble and beautiful fact is thus given us that the Gospel's fruit-bearing does not exhaust its source but rather developes the outcome. Transferring the imagery from the Gospel to its believing recipients, we gather that the more freely the Christian yields, as it were, his soul and his life to the fruitful energy of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) the stronger will he become for always ampler production. And so it is with the believing Church as a whole.

asit doth also in you "The comparison is thus doubled back, as it were, on itself" (Lightfoot). He returns, careless of literary symmetry, to the thought closest to his heart, the fruitful and growing life of faith at Colossœ, which is now his bright example and illustration of the blessing experienced "in all the world."

since the day From the very first hour of intelligent faith the Divine secret of fruit and growth had worked; as it was, and is, always meant to do.

ye heard ofit, and knew Better, ye heard and knew.

" Knew:" the Greek verb is a strong one, epiginôscein. It, or its kindred noun epignôsis, occurs e.g. Matthew 11:27; Romans 3:20; 1 Corinthians 13:12; Ephesians 1:17; Ephesians 4:13; below, Colossians 1:9-10; Colossians 2:2; Colossians 3:10; 2 Timothy 2:25; 2 Timothy 3:7; Hebrews 10:26; 2Pe 1:8; 2 Peter 2:20. The structure of the word suggests developedknowledge; the N.T. usage tends to connect it with spiritualknowledge. The Colossians had not only heard and, in a natural sense, understood the Gospel; they had seen into itwith the intuition of grace (cp. 1 Corinthians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 2:14).

the grace of God His free and loving gift of Christ to the believing soul, and Church, to be "all in all;" "righteousness, sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). This they had "heard" as Gospel, and "known" as life and peace.

For the phrase, cp. Acts 11:23; Acts 13:43; Acts 14:26; Acts 15:40; Acts 20:24; Rom 5:15; 1 Corinthians 1:4; 1 Corinthians 3:10; 1Co 15:10; 2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 6:1; 2 Corinthians 8:1; 2 Corinthians 9:14; Galatians 1:15; Galatians 2:21; Ephesians 3:2; Ephesians 3:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:12; Titus 2:11; Heb 12:15; 1 Peter 4:10; 1 Peter 4:12, and cp. Colossians 1:10.

in truth The words, grammatically, may refer to the reality of either the reception or the thing received. Order and connexion, and the drift of the whole Epistle, with its warning against a visionary and illusory "other Gospel," favour the latter. So we render, or explain, in (its) reality; in its character as the revelation of eternal fact and pure spiritual truth. Cp. Ephesians 4:21, and our note.