Colossians 2.19b-The Father and Son Use Those Men with the Communication Gifts to Affect Spiritual Growth in the Church
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday February 21, 2016
Colossians: Colossians 2:19b-The Father and the Son Use Those Men with the Communication Gifts to Affect Spiritual Growth in the Church
Lesson # 61
Colossians 2:18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. (NASB95)
“From whom” teaches that Jesus Christ is the source from which the individual members of the church experience growth spiritually.
“The entire body” refers to church age believers who are joined together as a corporate unit with the implication of each member having a distinctive function within this unit.
“Being supplied and held together” is composed of the following: (1) verb epichorēgeō (ἐπιχορηγέω), “being supplied” (10) conjunction kai (καί), “and” (11) verb sumbibazō (συμβιβάζω), “having been knit together”
The verb epichorēgeō means “to abundantly provide for, to abundantly supply” since it pertains to making abundantly available whatever is necessary to help or supply the needs of someone and pertains to abundantly providing what is necessary for the well-being of another.
Therefore, the verb epichorēgeō speaks of these men “abundantly supplying” or “abundantly providing” the church the Word of God.
The verb sumbibazō is used in a figurative sense meaning “to unite” since it pertains to bringing a certain group of people together as a unit and is used of the body of Christ being united experientially.
“By the joints and ligaments” is composed of the following: (1) preposition dia (διά)), “by” (2) noun haphē (ἁφή), “joints” (3) conjunction kai (καί), “and” (4) noun sundesmos (σύνδεσμος), “ligaments.”
The noun haphē appears only twice in the Greek New Testament, here in Colossians 2:19 and also Ephesians 4:16.
In both instances, the word means “ligament,” which literally refers to the tough fibrous band of tissue in the human body which connects the articular extremities of bones or supporting an organ in place.
However, here it is used metaphorically for the communicators of the Word of God to the church which would include those men with the spiritual gift of apostleship, teaching and prophecy.
This noun is in the genitive case and is the object of the preposition dia, which means “by, through” and functions as a marker of intermediate agency.
This is indicating that these communicators of the Word of God are the intermediate agency who Jesus Christ employs in order to produce growth in the individual members of His body, the church.
The noun sundesmos means “sinew, tendon” which literally refers to a tough cord or band of dense white fibrous connective tissue in the human body that unites a muscle with some other part and transmits the force which the muscle exerts.
However, here in Colossians 2:19, this word is used in a figurative sense since it is used in the body metaphor.
This noun is also referring to those men in the church with the spiritual gift of apostleship, teaching and prophecy which is indicated by the fact that Paul is employing the figure of hendiadys which indicates that these two nouns are not referring to two different groups of people in the church but rather one.
Therefore, this figure indicates that both words speak of those who communicate the Word of God to the church in the first century apostolic church.
Colossians 2:18 Absolutely no one must be allowed at any time to cause any one of you to be disqualified by delighting in false humility as well as worshipping the angels, by going into great lengths about things which they have supposedly seen. He does this because he is permitting himself to be arrogant for no legitimate reason because of his fleshly thinking. 19 In fact, he absolutely never at any time existed in the state of being united with the Head from whom, each and every member of the body is, as an eternal spiritual truth being abundantly provided for as well as united experientially through the ligaments who act as tendons too. As an eternal spiritual truth, it grows spiritually with a growth which is produced by God the Father. (My translation)
Now, in Colossians 2:19, after asserting that the false teachers were unregenerate, the apostle Paul ends this discussion of the teachers from the Essene branch of the Judaizers so as to embark upon a discussion regarding the church and her spiritual growth.
In particular, he discusses the importance of the Colossians appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session in order to deal with this confrontation with false doctrine.
He immediately asserts that Jesus Christ is the source from which the individual members of the church experience growth spiritually.
He reminds the Colossians that each and every one of them as members of the body of Christ is being abundantly provided for as well as united experientially through the ligaments who act as tendons too.
The ligaments and tendons are used metaphorically for the communicators of the Word of God to the church which would include those men with the spiritual gift of apostleship, teaching, prophecy and evangelism.
In other words, they speak of those men who are apostles, prophets, teachers and evangelists and this is clearly indicated by Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:7-16.
That the ligaments and tendons are a reference to the communication gifts is also indicated by a couple of other factors.
First of all, the Scriptures make clear that the believer’s spiritual food is the Word of God and enables them to grow spiritually (cf. Matthew 4:4; 1 Peter 2:2).
Secondly, Ephesians 4:11-14 teaches that the major function of these three gifts was to equip the saints for the work of service, to build them up spiritually, to produce unity among the members of the church.
The exercise of these gifts was also to provide the church knowledge of the Son of God and to protect here individual members from false doctrine.
The church grows numerically through evangelism and the function of the gift of evangelism.
Lastly, in Colossians 2:19, Paul asserts that from the head, Jesus Christ, the individual members of the church grow spiritually and are united experientially through the intermediate agency of the joints and ligaments of the body.
Therefore, since the Christian grows spiritually by learning and obeying God’s Word and the function of the gifts of apostleship, teaching and prophets provided the Word of God for the church and the ligaments and tendons of the body enable the growth of the body of Christ, these ligaments and tendons in Colossians 2:19 are a reference to these communication gifts.
The communicators of the Word of God are the intermediate agencies who Jesus Christ employs in order to produce growth in the individual members of His body, the church and this growth is also numerical.
The source of the spiritual growth and numerical growth of the body of Christ is Christ Himself, however, Christ affects this spiritual growth in the believer through the intermediate agency of those men with the gift of apostleship, teaching and prophecy.
He affects this numerical growth through the man with the gift of evangelism.
Paul asserts that these men with the gifts of apostleship, prophecy and teaching are abundantly providing the church the Word of God and thus he is teaching that the spiritual growth of the body of Christ is dependent upon the function of the communication gifts.
Then, Paul reminds the Colossians that these men with the communication gifts are the intermediate agencies used by the Lord Jesus Christ to affect unity experientially in the church.
Positionally, the body of Christ is already united through the baptism of the Spirit and in a perfective sense it will be united permanently at the rapture or resurrection of the church.
Here Paul is speaking of a unity that the members of the body of Christ experience when they learn and obey the teaching of the Word of God as it is communicated to them by those men with the communication gifts.
Therefore, Paul in Colossians 2:19 is reminding these faithful Christians in Colossae that they are to reject the teaching of those from the Essene branch of the Judaizers and instead continue to listen to and obey the teaching of the apostles as well as their pastor-teachers and prophets.
He is warning them in Colossians 2:8-19 that they will not continue to grow spiritually listening to the Judaizers misinterpret and misuse and misapply the Word of God to the church and they will not grow spiritually by obeying the teaching of the Judaizers.
Paul is encouraging the Colossians to continue doing what they are doing which is being taught by Epaphras and obeying what he is teaching them.
He wants to encourage them to continue to obey the apostolic teaching, i.e. the gospel and specifically, he wants them to continue to obey the commands of the gospel.
They are to continue to appropriate by faith their union and identification with Jesus Christ in order to continue to experience victory over the indwelling sin nature and Satan and his kingdom and to grow spiritually.
Colossians 2:19 ends with Paul asserting that the spiritual growth of the body of Christ is ultimately produced by God the Father since it was the Father who sent His Son into the world to become a human being in order to save sinful humanity.
It was also the Father’s plan to identify Christians with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.
This union and identification is the foundation and basis for the Christian way of life and it is by appropriating by faith this union and identification with Christ that the Christian experiences fellowship with the triune God and grows up spiritually to become like Christ.