Colossians 1

Notes

Ver. 1, 2. I Paul, an inspired preacher immediately called by Jesus Christ to be an eye-witness of his resurrection and ascension, and to plant churches among the Gentiles, according to the free purpose, commandment, and pleasure of God the Father; along with Timothy, my faithful brother in the work of the gospel—to all the holy and faithful Christians in Colosse, spiritually united to Jesus Christ, and renewed and sanctified by virtue derived from him,—wish the most abundant manifestation and application of divine favour, and all the happy and peaceful fruits thereof, from God our common Father, the original fountain of all blessings, and from Jesus Christ as the mediatorial sacrifice and dispenser of them: 3, 4. To whom we have, in our daily prayers, offered up the most affectionate and hearty thanksgivings, ever since we heard of your cordial acceptance of and trusting in Christ alone for salvation, and of your brotherly affection to all that profess his holy name and bear his holy image. 5, 6. Our prayers and praises, as well as your faith and love to Christ and his people, are excited by the consideration of that perfect blessedness which ye justly hope for through him, and which is laid up and hid with him in God, as a rich treasure reserved and secured by him, as your Father, for you, and which he has held forth and offered to all in the preaching of the true and faithful gospel—which was, in the kind providence of God, carried over and published to you without your seeking after it, as well as to both Jews and Gentiles in most places of the Roman empire; and, by the attending power of the Holy Ghost, has converted all who believe to Christ, and made them to bring forth the fruits of faith, love, and holy obedience, as it has done among you ever since ye experienced a real work of grace on your hearts, and were led into the spiritual knowledge and sincere faith of its doctrines of divine grace.—7. According as ye were taught them by Epaphras, your worthy minister, and our dear brother and faithful fellow-labourer in the service of Christ and his church—particularly in promoting your conversion to and sanctification in and by Christ; 8. And who, in his great affection to you, has represented to us your hearty and spiritual love to Christ and to all his saints, which the Holy Ghost has wrought in you, and drawn out in a spiritual manner, and on spiritual accounts, by means of the gospel. 9. Reflecting upon which report, we ever since have been led to a peculiar concern for you in all our solemn addresses to God; and to beg that ye may be more and more abundantly filled with the knowledge of his mind and will relating to the way of salvation by Jesus Christ, and to your comfort and duty, as interested therein, and may exceedingly abound in a judicious, experimental, and practical acquaintance with his manifold wisdom, and in all spiritual discernment of spiritual things, in their truth, excellence, and importance, and the use ye ought to make of them;—10. That, in the whole of your conversation before God or men, ye may act up to the dignity of your relation to and profession of him, and to the rich benefits which ye have received and hope for from him, and every way agreeable to his holy nature and will, bringing forth all the fruits of righteousness to his glory, and daily increasing in a transforming acquaintance and fellowship with him, as your heavenly Father and Friend; 11. Strengthened with every needful and almighty assistance of his Spirit for performing every duty and service, and for sustaining every trial, in a sweet, calm, and patient manner, without either murmuring against God or raging against men—persevering in them with a noble constancy and fortitude of spirit in submission to the will of God, and even triumphing in what he has done, does, or will do to support, strengthen, comfort, and glorify you. 12. Yea, that instead of complaining under trouble, you may heartily join with us in the most grateful thanksgivings to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of us in him—who, by graciously changing and renewing our nature, and endowing us with heavenly desires and affections, has prepared us for the full possession of that glorious inheritance which he had mercifully appointed, provided, and promised to us, and to all persons who believe, as his children; and in the light, glory, and joy of which we shall, in his immediate presence, be for ever perfectly filled with knowledge, holiness, and happiness; 13. Who also, by his almighty power and grace, has plucked out and rescued us that believe, Jews or Gentiles, from the tyranny and dominion of sin and Satan; and by changing our state, nature, and temper, has brought us into his kingdom of grace, in order to advance us into his kingdom of glory, under and through his infinitely beloved Son: 14. In whom, through his righteousness, fulfilled in our stead, and imparted and applied to our persons, we have a complete discharge from the guilt of sin and curse of the law; and in consequence thereof, a deliverance from the power of sin, Satan, and the wrath of God; and have a full title to, and the anticipating possession of, all spiritual and eternal blessings. 15. For the dignity of his person added an infinite value to his sacrifice, he being the express image of his Father's person—one with him in essence, nature, and perfections; and being, in his mediatorial office, incarnation, qualifications, and performances, the representative image of the Godhead, in which all its spiritual excellencies are most clearly, amiably, and transformingly displayed; and having existed from eternity as the essential Son of God, begotten of the Father before any creature was formed; and being, along with him, the former of all things, and accordingly the original Lord and first-born Heir thereof. 16. For by him, together with his Father and blessed Spirit, as the efficient cause, and in order to their subserviency to his mediatorial kingdom, and for his glory, as their last end, were all creatures, of every rank and order, material or spiritual, formed out of nothing; 17. Which undeniably demonstrates that he had an existence prior to all creatures, and has an infinite dignity above them, and all things do equally subsist, stand, or continue in him, who is omnipresent, all-powerful, and active in his providential influences over them, by which they are continually preserved in being, order, and proper action under him, as Head over all things to his church; 18. In which capacity he is not only her political Head of direction and government, but her Head of vital influence, to communicate all spiritual life, nourishment, growth, and activity to all and every one of his members—the original spring, not only of the spiritual life of their souls, but of the glorious resurrection of their bodies to eternal life; being the first that rose from the dead to an immortal life, and that by his own power, as the pledge, pattern, quickening cause, and first-fruits of his people's resurrection—that in all things he might be dignified and exalted by God, and esteemed by the church, even in his mediatorial capacity, above all saints, angels, and every other creature. 19. For, in effecting our salvation, Jehovah, in his own infinitely wise, gracious, and holy good pleasure, in honour to his Son and love to his people, has ordained and appointed that, answerably to the greatness of Christ's divine person and mediatorial office, all fulness of gifts and graces, merit and right, light and power, should permanently abide in him to the utmost perfection, not only for himself, but to be communicated to all who believe in Jesus Christ, that out of his fulness we may receive, and grace for grace. 20. And having, through that redemption which was secured by his sacrifice, which was finished in his painful, shameful, and accursed death on the cross, removed the enmity and made up the breach between him and believers, it has pleased the Father by him, as their Head and Mediator, to bring them all into a state of favour and friendship with himself, that the demands of his broken law and offended justice being fully answered by him in their stead, he might honourably act towards them in a way of gracious kindness and friendship, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, believers on earth, or glorified saints in heaven. 21, 22. In consequence of this, you who in the days of your heathenism and unregeneracy were estranged from the life of God, inwardly filled with enmity, and living in constant rebellion against him and his holy law, has he now, upon your believing, brought into a state of peace and friendship with himself, through the incarnation, obedience, and satisfactory sufferings of Christ, that he might present you now, as his mystical members in his church, and hereafter in the last judgment, as persons made righteous in law, and thoroughly sanctified in nature and life: 23. Which, I am satisfied, will be the happy issue with respect to you, as ye steadfastly persevere in the faith, profession, and obedience of the truth, as persons who are built upon and established in him as your spiritual foundation, and so maintain your ground against all the artful and violent attempts of Satan and his agents to shake or carry you away from Christ, the object of your hope, and from your hope in him, as set before you in the gospel, which ye have attentively heard and cordially received, when tenderly preached to both Jews and Gentiles, and of which God, in his infinite mercy, has appointed me a stated and inspired preacher. 24. And in the view of your steadfastness, I am so far from repining at the severe persecutions and present imprisonments which have befallen me on account of my preaching the gospel to Gentile sinners, that I greatly rejoice and glory in all these outward tribulations which I, who was once a persecutor, do or may endure, according to the appointment of Christ, and for his glory, and for the confirmation, edification, and comfort of his mystical body the church: 25. Of which church God, by his immediate authority, has constituted me an apostolic minister, according to that infinitely gracious order which he has fixed for dispensing the gospel, which is committed to me as a sacred trust, for the fulfilment of the ancient promises of the conversion, edification, and salvation of you Gentiles; 26. Which gospel is indeed a mystery, as it contains the unsearchable riches of Christ; and as it was for many ages concealed in its brightest glories, not only from the Gentile nations, but even in a great measure from the Jews, but which is now revealed, as clearly as the nature of the things permits, to his holy prophets and apostles, and by them to all true believers who, by repentance, faith, and regenerating grace, are his saints; 27. To whom, of his everlasting love, according to his compassion and ancient predictions, God would now, under the New Testament, make a plain discovery of the exceeding riches of the glory and incomprehensible excellency of the gospel tidings of salvation among you Gentiles—the all-comprehending sum of which is Christ, in his person, offices, relations, fulness, and work; who also is preached among you, and dwelling in your hearts by faith as the foundation, author, and object of all your hopes of eternal life. 28. And it is this Christ, in his natures, person, and mediation, and in the believing, affectionate, obediential regards due to him, whom we faithful preachers of the gospel make the grand subject of our ministrations, wisely and prudently admonishing all sorts of persons, Jews or Gentiles, to consider their sinful and miserable state by nature, and to beware of rejecting him; and instructing them, as God enables us, in the knowledge of the manifold wisdom of God, as displayed through him in the gospel revelation, to render them truly wise unto salvation, that we may be honoured instruments of presenting them to God as true and uncorrupted believers, renewed in all the faculties of their soul and members of their body, and remarkably fruitful in the several graces of the Spirit—who are perfect already in Christ their Head; and to be, through him, perfected in all knowledge and grace, holiness and happiness.—29. For this end, and in this work, as one excited and assisted by the remarkable influences of the almighty power of God, I labour to my utmost in prayer and preaching, and every other means, amidst all difficulties, and in the face of all opposition.

Ver. 7. It would seem from the way in which Epaphras is here mentioned that he was the first teacher of the Colossians, and perhaps the founder of the church there. He was a native of Colosse, ch. 4. 12, and shared Paul's imprisonment, for a time at least, in Rome, Phile. 23. It seems to have been from him the apostle learned so much of the Colossians, ch. 1. 8. P.

Ver. 12. An allusion, most probably, to the fact that the Israelites who came out of Egypt were not admitted to the inheritance of Canaan; while their children, under the teaching of Moses, and by the power of the Spirit, were prepared to enter in with Joshua, and to conquer and possess the land. C.

Ver. 15. Who is the image of the invisible God. God is essentially invisible; but 'the Word that was God' 'became flesh, and dwelt among us,' and in that flesh men 'beheld his glory;' and thus 'he that saw Christ saw the Father,' Jn. 14. 9: that is, in the works of love and power which Christ wrought.—The first-born of every creature. According to ver. 16, 17 Christ was before all things, and by him were all things created; therefore the title 'first-born' cannot signify that the Creator was a creature, for that were a contradiction; but the title πρωτότοκος appears to be taken, as in Jn. 1. 15, 30, for πρῶτος, and signifies that Sonship of the Word which existed before any being was created, agreeably to the scriptural mode of describing eternity. See ch. 8. 23; 24. 26; comp. 1 Jn. 1. 2. C.—This expression in the Greek may signify either (1) That Christ was the first-born of every creature, which might imply that he was himself a creature; or, (2) That he was begotten before every creature; and, consequently, that he could not himself be a creature. While the grammatical form of the clause will bear either signification, sound canons of hermeneutics compel us to attach to it the latter meaning.

Ver. 16. This description can never be applied to a moral or evangelical, but must refer to a natural creation. See ch. 2. 15; Ep. 1. 20; 6. 22. C.

Ver. 20. All things that, having rebelled against divine authority, needed reconciliation, and were given to Christ by the Father, Jn. 17. 2, that they might be called, gathered, kept, saved, and glorified. Ro. 8. 31. C.

Ver. 24. As if he had said, 'I who formerly took a cruel pleasure in persecuting others, now feel the highest joy in enduring, through what yet remains of my life, such afflictions as my Lord himself endured, and as he appoints for me, that thereby I may edify and confirm in patience, hope, and love, every persecuted member of his mystical body, the church.' C.

Reflections.—Ministers ought never to lose sight of their mission from Christ; and Christians ought never to lose sight of the divine authority of the Scriptures. Abundant is the grace, peace, and other blessings which Christ and his Father give, and which we ought therefore to wish to all his people. It is a great mercy to hear the gospel, to have its power manifested in our hearts, its glorious fruits appearing in our lives, and to hear of the like in others. And very thankful should we be that the gospel of our salvation, which was so long concealed under obscure figures and dark promises, and almost confined to the Jews, is now plainly manifested to both Jews and Gentiles. Happy is it to experience its power in enlightening our mind, renewing our will, delivering us from the slavery of Satan, and translating us into the kingdom of Christ, that he may dwell in us as the hope of glory! With much assurance may prayers be made for the increase of saints in light and grace, their strengthenings unto all patience and comfort under present trials, and unto all fruitful and holy walking with God, and meetness for their heavenly inheritance. Infinite are the glories of our Redeemer, as the essential, necessary, and eternal Son of God; the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things; the Head of the church; the Storehouse of all spiritual blessings; the reconciling Mediator between God and men: and abundant the peace, pardon, preservation, sanctification, and everlasting glory which his people receive by faith in him. Great is the honour to be made wise, faithful, diligent, and successful preachers of Christ. No sufferings or labours must be reckoned too hard for his sake, or for the edification, comfort, and eternal salvation of souls.