Under God

The Supremacy of Christ's Leadership

COLOSSIANS, LETTER TO THE A letter attributed to the Apostle Paul and addressed to the Christian believers at the city of Colossae, in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Colossians is one of four so-called Prison Letters, along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. Colossians is associated closely with Ephesians (due to overlapping content and structure) and Philemon (because Col 4:9 refers to Onesimus, Philemon’s slave).

Paul’s struggle for the Colossians

• 2:6–23—Paul’s warnings against false teachers

• 2:6–7—Foundation in Christ

• 2:8–23—The Church’s salvation and confidence comes from Christ

Paul’s struggle for the Colossians

• 2:6–23—Paul’s warnings against false teachers

• 2:6–7—Foundation in Christ

• 2:8–23—The Church’s salvation and confidence comes from Christ

Over against all those who vied to intellectualize the Christian faith, speaking of knowledge (gnōsis) as if it were an end in itself, Paul emphasizes that the revelation of God cannot be properly known apart from the cultivation of brotherly love within the community. The Corinthian church, which had special need to learn this lesson, was reminded that “knowledge (gnōsis) inflates, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1), and it is later made clear in Eph. 3:17–18 that only as Christians are “rooted and well founded in love” can they “comprehend with all the saints” the fullness of the divine revelation. And this revelation is personal: Christ himself is the mystery of God revealed—Christ, with whom they have now become one. “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor. 1:20). The personal knowledge of Christ is the royal road to the appreciation of the divine wisdom.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 91.

3 For it is in Christ that all the treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge are stored up. Formerly they were stored up in concealment, but now that Christ has come they are unfolded to those who have believed in him. As once to the Corinthians, so now to the Colossians Paul insists that Christ is the Wisdom of God. In him is enshrined the true knowledge, in contrast to the counterfeit gnōsis of the false teachers.

So then, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, pursue your way of life in him. 7 Be rooted and built up in him, firmly established in your faith, as you have been taught, abounding in thanksgiving

6 This short sentence introduces us to the concept of tradition in apostolic Christianity. The idea of tradition, together with the terminology used to express it, is common in Judaism, where it especially designates the handing down of the oral law and its interpretation from one generation to another. The best-known summary of the Jewish handing down of tradition in the ages before A.D. 70 tells how “Moses received the Torah from Sinai, and he delivered it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets delivered it to the men of the great synagogue”

9 The teachers of error may have talked of the fullness of divine being as distributed among a hierarchy of spirit-powers, through which it was filtered down to this world: Christians had something better. They had Christ, the personal revelation of the Father, the one mediator between God and human beings, in whom (truly man as he was) the plenitude of deity was embodied. Far from there being any inherent impossibility in the nature of things for God to communicate directly with this world, he who shared the divine nature had become flesh and made his dwelling with men and women.

Protestants sometimes overlook that “tradition” in the NT has this better sense as well as a worse one; it is good to recognize and hold fast the true tradition, while rejecting all tradition which runs counter to the gospel.

Over against all those who vied to intellectualize the Christian faith, speaking of knowledge (gnōsis) as if it were an end in itself, Paul emphasizes that the revelation of God cannot be properly known apart from the cultivation of brotherly love within the community. The Corinthian church, which had special need to learn this lesson, was reminded that “knowledge (gnōsis) inflates, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1), and it is later made clear in Eph. 3:17–18 that only as Christians are “rooted and well founded in love” can they “comprehend with all the saints” the fullness of the divine revelation. And this revelation is personal: Christ himself is the mystery of God revealed—Christ, with whom they have now become one. “All the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Cor. 1:20). The personal knowledge of Christ is the royal road to the appreciation of the divine wisdom.

the handwriting of ordinances—rather, “in ordinances” (see on Eph 2:15); “the law of commandments contained in ordinances.” “The handwriting” (alluding to the Decalogue, the representative of the law, written by the hand of God) is the whole law, the obligatory bond, under which all lay; the Jews primarily were under the bond, but they in this respect were the representative people of the world (Ro 3:19); and in their inability to keep the law was involved the inability of the Gentiles also, in whose hearts “the work of the law was written” (Ro 2:15); and as they did not keep this, they were condemned by it.

will-worship—arbitrarily invented worship: would-be worship, devised by man’s own will, not God’s. So jealous is God of human will-worship, that He struck Nadab and Abihu dead for burning strange incense (Le 10:1–3). So Uzziah was stricken with leprosy for usurping the office of priest (2 Ch 26:16–21). Compare the will-worship of Saul (1 Sa 13:8–14) for which he was doomed to lose his throne. This “voluntary worship” is the counterpart to their “voluntary humility” (Col 2:18):both specious in appearance, the former seeming in religion to do even more than God requires (as in the dogmas of the Roman and Greek churches); but really setting aside God’s will for man’s own; the latter seemingly self-abasing, but really proud of man’s self-willed “humility” (Greek, “lowliness of mind”), while virtually rejecting the dignity of direct communion with Christ, the Head; by worshipping of angels. neglecting of the body—Greek, “not sparing of the body.” This asceticism seems to have rested on the Oriental theory that matter is the source of evil. This also looked plausible (compare 1 Co 9:27).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 379.

συμβιβασθέντεςsymbibasthentes so that their hearts may be encouraged, united in love and into all the wealth of the full assurance of insight into the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ,

United Under Christ

συμβιβάζωsymbibazōunite; hold together; advise verb, aorist, passive, participle, plural, nominative, masculine | circumstantial participle LXGRCANLEXunite; hold together; advise; to demonstrate; to conclude; to instruct; to teach; to uniteLALSbring together; guide; instruct; ירה 3; instruct, teach; ידע; know, notice, hear of, learn; revea

Fullness

στερέωμα stereōma, n.c., firmament; foundation. 32× +NT +AF Hebrew Alignment רָקִיעַ—beaten metal plate, or bow; firmament, firm vault of heaven (13): Gen 1:6, 7,

a solid body; a support, foundation; strength; steadfastness, firmness; the firmament

εὐχαριστίᾳeucharistia firmly rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding with thankfulness.

εὐχαριστίαeucharistiathanksgiving; thankfulness

ἐξουσίαςexousias When he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a display of them in public, triumphing over them by it.

ἐξουσίαexousiaauthority; power noun, accusative, plural, feminine | direct object LXGRCANLEXauthority; power; authority; power; right; ruling power; controlPLGNTMGLNTliberty; power; right, authority; jurisdiction; a ruler; magistrate

speech; freedom of speech, plainness, openness, freedom; freely, openly, plainly

The message proclaimed by Paul to the Colossians remains the one message of hope to men and women in frustration and despair. Christ crucified and risen is Lord of all: all the forces of the universe are subject to him, not only the benign ones but the hostile ones as well. They are all subject to the one through whom they were created; the hostile forces are also subject to the one by whom they were conquered. Therefore, to be united to him is to be liberated from their thraldom, to enjoy perfect freedom, to overcome the powers of evil through participation in his victory. The redemption that is in Christ Jesus is a cosmic redemption; its healing virtue streams out to the farthest bounds of creation. But it is a personal and particular redemption too: the conqueror who is enthroned at God’s right hand, supreme above the universe and filling it with his presence, is at the same time enthroned as king in each believer’s heart. Though “we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (Heb. 2:8), we are nevertheless assured that, because of his redemptive act, all creation will ultimately “be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). And here and now those who have already entered into that liberty may share Paul’s persuasion “that neither death nor life, … nor principalities, … nor powers, … nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38–39). 2. GUARD YOUR FREEDOM! (2:16–19)

Elsewhere, in dealing with these matters, the apostle introduces a further principle which might impose a voluntary limitation on one’s Christian liberty—the principle of respect for the tender conscience of a “weaker brother” (Rom. 14:13–21; 1 Cor. 8:7–13). But this latter principle is invoked when Christians are asserting their liberty at all costs (even at the cost of Christian charity); at Colossae it is precisely Christian liberty that needs to be asserted in face of specious attempts to undermine it.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 114.

Grow your Heart