Colossians 2

Notes

Ver. 1. I mention these my earnest endeavours to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, to make you sensible of my great care and fervent prayers for you and your neighbours of Laodicea, and others who never had an opportunity of attending on or being profited by my ministrations; 2, That their hearts may be abundantly filled with divine consolation, as believers who are closely and firmly cemented together in the most cordial affection to Christ and to one another, and are thoroughly united in their endeavours for attaining a distinct, clear, and complete acquaintance with the gospel plan of salvation, in all its riches of spiritual and eternal blessings, unto the entire satisfaction of their souls, and their making an honourable, steady, and public profession of those deep things of it which were from all eternity intended and prepared in the gracious mind of God the Father, and are secured, revealed, and bestowed through faith in Christ, as the great Mediator between God and man; 3. In which mystery of the gospel, and especially in which Christ, are truly, safely, and incomprehensibly laid up and contained all the inexhaustible treasures of wisdom and knowledge for managing all the affairs of providence and grace, and for manifesting the whole will of God as to our salvation, and seasonably supplying our wants, enlightening our minds, and daily directing our steps to the heavenly glory. 4. And I would lead you to consider this inexhaustible fulness of wisdom and knowledge laid up for you in Christ and the gospel, in order to prevent your being seduced from him and his truths by pretenders to heathen philosophy and Jewish learning. 5. For though in bodily presence I am, and always have been, absent from you, yet my heart is with you, delightfully reflecting on what I have heard of your faith, love, and hope; and, through the suggestions of God's Spirit, I have a view of your rich attainments and diversified trials; and am affected as if I were present among you, rejoicing in your orderly behaviour and regular discipline, and in your firm, solid, and steady adherence of faith to the person, mediation, and doctrines of Christ, notwithstanding all the artifices which have been used to corrupt your minds, and draw you off from him. 6. As therefore ye have by faith received the Lord Jesus Christ in his person and offices, as your Prophet, to instruct you; your Priest, to make atonement and intercede for you; and your King, to defend, rule, and govern you,—be careful, by virtue of union to and gracious influence from him, to cleave to him with full purpose of heart, and to walk in a daily exercise of faith on him, and in a constant observation of all his ordinances and commandments, answerably to your profession of and relation to him: 7. As trees of righteousness, being rooted in and fastening on him, to keep you fixed and immovable, and drawing nourishment from him for your spiritual growth; and as a spiritual house, being built upon him and closely united to him, as the only foundation of your faith and hope, security and salvation—that ye may be confirmed in the doctrine and grace of faith in him, as ye have heard by the ministry of Epaphras; and may exceedingly abound in the daily increase of knowledge, faith, and every other grace, with enlarged thankfulness and praise to the author and finisher of all that concerns you.—8. Take heed lest seducers make a prey of you, and draw you off from Christ and his pure gospel, and rob you of its privileges and blessings, through the subtleties and corruptions of heathen philosophy, Jewish traditions, or the observation of Mosaic ceremonies; none of which things are, according to the mind and will of Christ, revealed in the gospel, nor do any of them, as now urged and observed, lead your soul to him only for salvation, who alone hath an all-sufficiency for it in himself. 9. For all the perfections of the Godhead, in their utmost fulness, for ever and substantially abide and dwell in his incarnate person, or temple of his manhood, in a personal and infinitely more glorious manner than ever Jehovah dwelt in the Jewish tabernacle or temple, or than he dwells in the hearts of angels or men, good or bad. 11. In him therefore ye are so complete as to have no need of ceremonial circumcision, as judaizing teachers pretend, being spiritually circumcised by the Holy Ghost, who hath renewed your heart and cut off your whole system of inward corruption—removing the guilt, power, and defilement of it, not by any human influences, but merely by the cleansing and sanctifying operation of Jesus Christ. 12. And in that baptism, which Christ hath instituted in the room of circumcision, ye have received the sign of and obligation to that holiness which is, or ought to be, in you as God's faithful people; and have had represented, sealed, and applied to you a certain and continued death to sin, and a quickening and resurrection to a life of holiness, in conformity to and by virtue derived from his death and resurrection, through that faith you have exercised in your hearts by the same almighty influence by which God raised up Christ from the dead, and will, by virtue of his resurrection, at last raise you up to eternal life. 13. And you, who, in your sinful unregenerate state, were dead in law, lying under a just sentence of condemnation, and dead to God and everything spiritually good, lying under the power and filth of your inward corruptions, which circumcision anciently signified, hath God now raised up to a new life of grace and holiness, in order to a heavenly life of glory and blessedness together with Christ as your Pattern and Head of influence—having, on account of his righteousness imparted, freely pardoned to each of you all your iniquities, original and actual, lesser or greater, and given you a full and glorious title to eternal life; 14. Blotting out, as it were, all our transgressions by the blood of his Son, and thereby disannulling that federal or ceremonial obligation to punishment on account of them which testified that we were transgressors, and which separated the Gentiles from the church and privileges of the Jews, and was the cause of much enmity between them; and by his death entirely removing and utterly destroying it, that it might never be produced in judgment against us. 15. And having, by fully honouring all law and justice, disarmed Satan and all his subordinate ranks of apostate angels of their power, which arises from the curse of the law, he exposed them openly, and triumphed over them in his cross, as the sovereign Ruler of all. angels, and triumphed over them as his conquered foes. 16. Since therefore believing Gentiles as well as Jews are complete in Christ, and the handwriting of ordinances, contrary to both, is cancelled, let none pretend that the non-observance of ceremonial ordinances relating to meats and drinks, or to their annual or monthly festivals, or even the Jewish seventh-day sabbath, can hinder your spiritual or eternal happiness; or, if they do, regard them not. 17. For the whole of these observances required by the ceremonial law were but merely shadows and figures of the good things which were to come under the gospel; but the truth, reality, or substance represented by them is brought in by Christ, and to be found in him.—18. And since he, in whom ye are complete, is the Head of all principality and power, let no one, whether Jewish zealot or Gentile philosopher, deprive you of your spiritual comfort or eternal glory, or lead you out of the way to it, seducing you to adopt human inventions in the worship of God, or to worship angels, good or bad, as mediators between God and men; through the pride of their corrupt hearts, pretending uncommon insight into the things of God, and attempting to pry into what he never revealed; 19. Adopting these corruptions of worship to the great dishonour of Jesus Christ, and rejecting, instead of laying hold on, adhering to, and by faith trusting in him alone, as the only and all-sufficient Mediator and Advocate, to recommend them and their prayers to the acceptance of God; and joining creatures in honour with him who is the Head of angels, good or bad, and of every other creature, and who is the Representative and the vital as well as governing Head of his church, from whom all her true members, deriving spiritual nourishment, are united to him and to one another, by his Spirit, and by faith, love, and religious ordinances; and do, by virtue derived from God, increase in light and grace, comfort, holiness, and strength, and in good works, according to his will, and for his glory. 20-23. If then, according to the meaning of your baptism, ye, by virtue of union with Christ, and by communion with him in his death, are fully discharged from the moral law as a covenant, and from the obligations of the ceremonial law, why, as if ye were merely carnal men, and lived under a carnal dispensation, do ye, from regard to human imposition, submit yourselves to any of the legal ordinances, which prohibit the touching or eating of meats once ceremonially unclean, but now allowed for men's perishing provision, as things that cannot defile their soul?—These human injunctions, relative to the service of God or mortification of our body, beyond what he has prescribed, have nothing worthy in themselves or honourable to him, but are a mere shadow of wisdom or humility, and are really calculated to cultivate and please the false taste of men of corrupt minds.

Ver. 1. Laodicea. A famous city in the neighbourhood of Colosse. C.

Ver. 7. Rooted, as a tree bidding defiance to every storm.—Built up, as a living stone in a living temple.—Note, There is here no mixture, but merely a variety of most appropriate metaphor, each forming a separate and complete picture in itself. C.

Ver. 9. He embodied the Godhead: God was manifest in his flesh, in life, wisdom, love, and power. C.

Ver. 10. Ye are complete in him. Rather, 'Ye are made complete in him'—in knowledge of God, in motives to holiness, in comfort of heart, in possession of righteousness, in heirship of glory. C.

Ver. 14. The handwriting. The bond of Jewish ordinances by which we were bound as a debtor to a creditor.—Nailing was an ancient mode of cancelling a bond.—To his cross. Rather, 'by his cross'—the condemnation of the law having been reversed by his sacrifice. C.

Ver. 15. This verse is very obscure. The subject of it may be, grammatically, either God or Christ. From ver. 13 I am led to the belief that it is God; and I therefore adopt Alford's interpretation, which is in substance as follows:—'Putting off (not "having spoiled"—a meaning which this word cannot have) the principalities and powers (the glories and angelic attendants which are referred to in ver. 10 and ch. 1. 16), he (God the Father) exhibited them (the principalities and powers as completely subjected to Christ) openly, triumphing over them in him' (i.e. showing his omnipotence by placing all these under Christ as Head of the church, so that he may employ them in his work). P.

Ver. 18. Let no man, &c. 'Let no man beguile you of your prize'—the high calling of God in Christ—'desiring' to initiate you 'in an affected humility and worshipping of angels.' The reference seems to be to some false teachers who inculcated the impropriety of a direct address to God by Christ, and urged the necessity of angel mediators as an evidence of humility. C.

Ver. 20-22. 'Why are ye subject' to those vain philosophical precepts or Jewish ordinances, which are ever saying, 'Touch not' this, even with your finger; 'taste not' that, lest you be seduced by appetite; 'handle not' this, for it is unclean—precepts which have no real relation to the immortal soul, but merely to bodily aliments, 'which all perish with the using?' C.

Ver. 23. Not in anything really honourable because spiritual but merely in things pertaining to bodily gratification by food. And, truly, ascetic severity, instead of improving the heart, is usually found to pamper self-righteousness and pride. C.

Reflections.—It is God's will, and his ministers' care, that the saints be united, comforted, and daily increase in knowledge, faith, and holy order; and that, having received Jesus Christ in all his offices as an all-supplying fountain, they should walk in him with the most steady faith, love, holy obedience, and cordial thanksgiving. Christians have need to beware of carnal wisdom and plausible errors. And it is absurd to forsake Christ or his gospel for anything else, when he has such fulness of Godhead and of spiritual blessings, and renders us complete in himself. Thrice happy are they who, being quickened by his Spirit, renewed in their hearts, delivered from the broken law, reconciled to God, and made triumphant over devils, derive all necessary and nourishing influences from him as their Representative, vital Head, and gracious Governor. Rich is the mercy that, through his incarnation, obedience, and death, we are delivered from sin, from curses, from devils, from death and hell, and from all the dark and burdensome rites of the Jewish dispensation. And it is absurd for such as the Lord has thus freed to retain those rites, or add others, in the worship of God, as if such things could render us acceptable in his sight.