Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Colossians 3:15

Colossians 3:15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. The word ‘rule' is more exactly: ‘act as umpire,' a figure borrowed from the Grecian games. In Philippians 4:7, ‘the peace of God' occurs, and this passage was probably altered to conform. The idea is, however, substantially the same. It is from God, but Christ's gift (John 14:27), and is to be here understood in its widest sense. Those who accept ‘rule' as the meaning of the verb, refer the precept more immediately to Christian concord. If the sense of arbitrating, acting as umpire, is retained, then the reference is to internal conflict in which this peace decides. The word itself favors the latter view, the context the former.

Unto which also. ‘ Also' indicates that this is a reason for the previous exhortation, or wish.

Ye were called in one body. The ‘one body' is the body of Christ, the Church; comp. Ephesians throughout ‘To have become through the call one body with the sharers in that call, and yet not to permit the holy moral disposition, for the sake of which one is called, to be the common controlling power of life, what a contradiction!' (Meyer.)

And be (lit, ‘become') ye thankful. The adjective does not occur elsewhere, but the general thought is very frequent in the Apostle's writings. ‘Become' suggests increase, constant advance toward a gratitude not yet attained.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Colossians 3:15

Old Testament

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