Colossians 1.24b-Paul's Undeserved Suffering Supplemented What Remains of Christ's Sufferings
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday July 12, 2015
Colossians: Colossians 1:24b-Paul’s Undeserved Suffering Supplemented What Remains of Christ’s Sufferings
Lesson # 32
Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. (NASB95)
“In filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” advances upon and intensifies upon the previous statement that Paul was presently in a state of joy during the course of his sufferings on behalf of each and every member of the Colossian Christian community.
“In filling up what is lacking” is composed of the following: (1) verb antanaplēroō (ἀνταναπληρόω), “in filling up” (3) noun husterēma (ὑστέρημα), “what is lacking.”
The verb antanaplēroō means “to supplement” in the sense of completing something which would indicate that Paul is saying that he is “supplementing” that which is lacking Christ’s afflictions.
The noun husterēma is in the plural and does literally mean “deficiencies” or “that which is lacking” but it should not be translated as such since the word “deficiency” or the phrase “that which is lacking” in our day and age has a negative connotation attached to it in that of failure.
A better translation would be “that which remains” since Paul is not saying that Christ’s sufferings were not sufficient to pay the penalty for sin.
Rather he is identifying his undeserved suffering with Jesus Christ’s undeserved suffering because he is viewing his suffering from the perspective that he is a member of the body of Jesus Christ and that he is identified with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion and death.
“In my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church” means that Paul’s human body was the means which he was to supplement that which remains of the one and only Christ’s intense sufferings.
Colossians 1:24 I am presently rejoicing because of my sufferings on behalf of each and every one of you. In fact, I am supplementing that which remains of the one and only Christ’s intense sufferings by means of my physical body on behalf of His body which is, as an eternal spiritual truth, the church. (My translation)
In Colossians 1:24, after informing the Colossians that his undeserved suffering in Rome on behalf of each and every one of them caused him to rejoice, he then advances upon this statement and intensifies it.
He does this by stating that his suffering was supplementing that which remains of Christ’s intense sufferings.
So the advancement and intensification is that Paul is informing the Colossians the purpose of his present circumstances in which he was suffering undeservedly as a prisoner of the Roman Empire.
He goes from expressing his state of mind regarding his imprisonment to stating the relationship between his suffering and Christ’s suffering.
He goes from expressing his joy while suffering imprisonment to telling the reader that this suffering is because of his identification with Jesus Christ.
His suffering is Christ’s suffering as a result.
Jesus Christ’s “intense sufferings” speak of His six trials, scourging, mental and physical anguish and torture in suffering crucifixion as well as spiritual and physical death on the cross.
Some interpret Colossians 1:24 as teaching that “Christ’s sufferings” refer to the quota of sufferings the church must undergo corporately before the end of the age (cf. Matt. 24:6; Heb. 11:40; Rev. 6:11).
The problem with this interpretation is that this idea is foreign to the context which emphasizes the contribution Paul’s sufferings contributed to the spiritual well-being of the Colossians.
Paul wasn’t saying that his sufferings would prevent their suffering.
Another interpretation is that Paul viewed his suffering as similar to Christ’s.
However, he is clear that Christ’s sufferings were His own or exclusive to him and thus were not Paul’s.
A third interpretation is that the sufferings of Christ are those sacrificial works which the Lord left for Christians to perform.
So as Christ suffered so Christians suffer.
The problem with this interpretation is that if Paul meant this, then why did he speak of them as Christ’s sufferings?
Paul is not saying that Christ’s sufferings were not sufficient to propitiate the Father and redeemed all of sinful humanity and reconcile them to a holy God since the rest of Scripture including Paul’s teaching was that Christ’s suffering were sufficient since the context in no way says this or implies it.
Rather the apostle Paul is teaching that his undeserved suffering is supplementing that which remains of Christ’s sufferings since he viewed his suffering as a part of Christ’s sufferings.
He viewed Christ as suffering through his suffering because of his identification with Him.
Christ no longer suffered in His human body which now has been resurrected.
But He does experience suffering through the individual members of the church since He indwells them.
Paul viewed his suffering as helping to complete all the suffering of Jesus Christ which He would experience through His body, the church.
Paul’s suffering was Christ’s suffering and thus he viewed his suffering as helping to complete all that Christ would suffer through His body, the church.
This would encourage the members of the body of Christ in Colossae and throughout the Roman Empire because what was true of Paul would be true of them because they too were identified with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.
It encouraged Paul.
J. Hampton Keathley III writes “The simplest and most logical explanation stems from the mystical union that exists between Christ and that of His people in the body of Christ, the church. When believers suffer, Christ suffers with them. Christ’s substitutionary sufferings are finished, complete, but His sufferings in and through His people continue. This concept is expressed in several other passages of the New Testament (cf. Matt. 25:34-40; 2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 3:10; Acts 9:4-5).”
Since Paul is identified with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection and since he is a member of the body of Christ who is the head of the body, Paul considered his sufferings while imprisoned to be that of Jesus Christ’s.
In other words, Paul’s suffering while imprisoned was Jesus Christ’s since Paul is a member of Christ’s body.
So Jesus Christ suffers when one of the members of his body suffers.
The apostle was taught this at his conversion when the Lord asked him why he was persecuting Him because he was persecuting the church (Acts 9).
Paul is identifying his undeserved suffering with Jesus Christ’s undeserved suffering because he is viewing his suffering from the perspective that he is a member of the body of Jesus Christ and that he is identified with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion and death.
Also, Paul viewed Christ suffering through him because Christ indwelled him.
Thus, Christ was suffering along with Paul.
This too would be a comfort for the Colossians and all Christians throughout the Roman Empire that they were not alone and that in fact, Jesus Christ Himself was present in them experiencing their suffering along with them.
The apostle Paul also states in this emphatic clause in Colossians 1:24 that through his undeserved suffering, he was supplementing that which remains of Christ’s intense sufferings by means of his physical body on behalf of His body, which is the church.
The suffering he experienced in his physical body was on behalf of the church and supplemented that which remained of Christ’s intense sufferings.
Again, the suffering Paul experienced in his physical body during his arrest and imprisonment benefitted the church because it provided the church an example to follow on how to persevere through undeserved suffering and the attitude the Christian must have in order to bring glory to God.
The church also benefitted from Paul’s first Roman imprisonment because he wrote four great epistles to the church which have been a source of great instruction for the church and encouragement throughout the church age.