Colossians 2:1-7. His labour of prayer for the Colossians and other unvisited converts: There is need, for errors are in the air 1. _For, &c_.] He takes up the word "_striving_," just used, and justifies it by telling them of a certain special "_strife_" of his on their behalf. _I would that ye kn... [ Continue Reading ]
_comforted Ut consolentur_, Latin Versions. But the Greek verb means more than to console; it is rather to hearten, to encourage. _Confortatio_, the (late) Latin original of our "_comfort_," is "to make _fortis, strong;_" and "_comfort_" long retained this meaning in English. Wyclif here has "_counf... [ Continue Reading ]
_in whom_ Christ, the Secret of God, is now _characterized_as such; the Secret is _Christ as the Treasury of wisdom and knowledge_. _are hid_&c. Better, regarding the order of the Greek, IN WHOM ARE ALL THE TREASURES, &c., HIDDEN ( THERE). The thought that they are "hidden" is emphasized. See below... [ Continue Reading ]
_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_." _... [ Continue Reading ]
_For_ He means that he knows the need of such warning, though he is so far away. He is close to them "_in spirit_." _in the spirit_ Is this the human spirit or the Divine? 1 Corinthians 5:4 (with 3) appears to decide for the former. It is scarcely enough to say (as Lightfoot) that this is "the commo... [ Continue Reading ]
_As ye have therefore_&c. As if to say, "I see with joy your present stedfast faith and consequent holy union; therefore I entreat you at once to stay there and to grow there, for you will be tempted towards a very different region otherwise." " _Have received_" _:_somewhat better, DID RECEIVE, at t... [ Continue Reading ]
_rooted_ A perfect participle. It recurs Ephesians 3:17, the only other place in which St Paul uses precisely this metaphor, which combines the thought of fixity with that of derived and developing life from a genial source. There, as here, the metaphor of _building_(more frequent with St Paul) appe... [ Continue Reading ]
Warning against alien teachings: Christ is all for peace and life 8. _Beware_&c. Quite lit., "_See lest any one shall be your spoiler_" _;_the positive and imminent risk being indicated by the future tense (" _shall be_"), quite anomalous in such constructions. _any_man] "This indefinite [expressio... [ Continue Reading ]
_For_ He is about to shew that "Christ" is the antithesis of this false gospel in two respects; (_a_) His glorious Person is all in all as the substance of the true Gospel; (_b_) His code of resulting observance appears not in an ascetic rule but in a life of liberty and purity in union with the Ris... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye are complete in him_ Lit. and better AND YE ARE (emphatic) IN HIM FILLED FULL; or perhaps, with Lightfoot, AND YE ARE IN HIM, FILLED FULL two statements in one; you _are in_Him, and you are _filled full_in Him. You are in immediate union with Him, and in that union you possess, potentially a... [ Continue Reading ]
_in whom_ The truth of the holy Union of members and Head is again in view. What he is about to speak of was done by the fact of, by virtue of, their oneness with Christ. _are circumcised_ Better, WERE CIRCUMCISED, when you entered "into Christ." They already _had_that Divine Reality, the sacred bu... [ Continue Reading ]
_buried with him_ Cp. Romans 6:4; the only parallel. Union with Christ is primarily union with Him as the Dead and Buried, because His Death (consummated as it were and sealed in His Burial) is the procuring cause of all our blessings in Him, as it is our Propitiation and Peace. The Christian, joine... [ Continue Reading ]
_And you_ It is as if the Apostle would have written, "_and you with Him_" carrying on the last sentence. But he pauses on the word "_you_," and makes a new statement. _dead in_your _sins_ See Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5, for a close parallel written about the same time. " _Dead_" _:_devoid of spi... [ Continue Reading ]
_blotting out_ CANCELLED (Lightfoot). The act of "forgiving" is described under vivid imagery. Cp. Acts 3:19; and see Psalms 51:1; Psalms 51:9; Psalms 109:14; Nehemiah 4:5; Isaiah 44:22; Jeremiah 18:23. _the handwriting_ THE BOND, NOTE-OF-HAND. The original word, _cheirographon_, meaning an autograp... [ Continue Reading ]
_having spoiled_ "_Having put off from Himself_" (R.V.). The Greek verb is apparently unknown before St Paul; classical illustration is impossible. Its literal meaning is "_to strip off_"; and its voice is middle. This voice, it is alleged, compels us to explain it of the Lord's stripping off someth... [ Continue Reading ]
Christian Liberty and Theories hostile to it 16. _therefore_ Such is the Christian's position in this sacrificed and triumphant Saviour. He stands possessed of the full inheritance of which the Mosaic ritual institutions were at once the shadow and the veil. Now therefore, so far as those instituti... [ Continue Reading ]
_a shadow_ Cp. Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 10:1. The word suggests the idea of "an image cast by an object and representing its form." (Grimm's _N.T. Lexicon_, ed. Thayer.) _things to come_ from the point of view of the Old Dispensation. The Epistle to the Hebrews is a large apostolic expansion, so to spe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let no_man] Another parallel but distinct caution after that of Colossians 2:16. _beguile you of your reward_ ROB YOU OF YOUR PRIZE, R.V. The verb is compounded with the noun _brabeion_(used Philippians 3:14), an athletic prize. Here, as in Philippians, it means the life eternal, "the crown of life... [ Continue Reading ]
_holding_ HOLDING FAST (R.V.). The word is used Acts 3:11 of the healed cripple's _grasp_of the Apostles who had healed him. The erring teacher is said "not to hold" the Head, not only as a man but as _a teacher_. _the head_ "Regarded as a title, so that a Person is at once suggested" (Lightfoot).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_ The word is certainly to be omitted on documentary evidence. A new and separate theme is now in view, the doctrines of the intruding teachers about duty and morals. _if ye be dead_ Lit. and better, with R.V., IF YE DIED. See on Colossians 2:11-12. "_If_" assumes the "death" as a fact.... [ Continue Reading ]
(_touch not; taste not; handle not;_ Better (discarding _the bracket_here), HANDLE THOU NOT, NOR TASTE, NOR TOUCH. This rendering represents exactly the construction of the Greek, and is truer to the shades of meaning of the first and last of the three Greek verbs. The last verb denotes a lighter an... [ Continue Reading ]
_which all are to perish with the using;_)] Lit., WHICH ARE ALL FOR CORRUPTION IN THE CONSUMPTION. I.e., the things which are thus forbidden as soul-tainting are things merely material, not moral, and this is evidenced by their merely material destiny physical dissolution in the course of natural us... [ Continue Reading ]
_which_things] More precisely, if the word may be tolerated, WHICH-LIKE THINGS; the prohibitions given above, Colossians 2:21, and all others which depend on the same principle. _have indeed_ More precisely, DO INDEED HAVE, with a slight emphasis on the admission. There was a specious and seductive... [ Continue Reading ]