Colossians 3

CHAPTER III

The Complementary Part of the Letter: Sketch of the True Christian Life without Judaistic Taint, 3:1–4:6

Paul has concluded his warnings: “See to it lest,” etc. (2:8); “Do not let anyone judge you” (2:16); “Let no one deny you the prize” (2:18). These warnings are concluded with the rhetorical question asked in 2:20–23. These are followed by exhortations throughout this third part of the letter, and all of them deal with the life the Colossians must lead as true Christians. The life sketched for the Colossians differs in no way from the life which Christians in any congregation should lead. This is exactly the point the Colossians should note, who are being pestered by the decrees of the Judaizers (2:20–23). The Colossians should ignore all these pestiferous Judaistic rules and regulations and simply live the plain, true, joyful, prayerful Christian life. That is to be their answer to the Judaizers.

The Life that ever Looks upward to Christ

1. Accordingly, if you were jointly raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand!

Paul has an “if” of reality just as in 2:20; “if you were jointly raised up with Christ” is the counterpart of “if you died together with Christ.” This links the new part of the letter to the part preceding; yet a new part begins at this point, it is not a continuation of 2:20–23. The new part is evident from the series of exhortations that now begins, all of which deal with the true Christian life.

These exhortations, i.e., this part of the letter, are not intended to meet a second and different need of the Colossians, not one that is apart from their need of warning against the Judaizers. The very way in which Paul links this new part to the preceding excludes this idea. Moreover, the answer which the Colossians give to the Judaizers must not consist only in doctrine but must also include the practice and the life based on the doctrine. Thus Paul recalls for the Colossians all the doctrinal facts about the absolute supremacy of the God-man, which he has pointed out in the second part of his letter, together with all the absolute completeness of his work; this shall utterly destroy the fictional Judaistic doctrine.

Now he proceeds to delineate the true Christian life which results from the true doctrine; and he shows that this is the opposite of the life the Judaizers try to live in accord with their doctrine. Through Paul’s entire outline of the Christian life runs this deep and vital opposition. The Colossians are not to adopt some peculiar type of Christian life in order to meet the kind of life the Judaizers advocate, there is only one type of Christian life. It is this genuine Christian life that ever stands like a rock against all errorists, hence also against the type of life these Judaizers would foist upon the Colossians. Paul’s task is to sketch this true Christian life in such a way that its opposition to all Judaistic life appears. This he does in this part of his letter. It would be a misunderstanding of Paul’s purpose to regard this part as a general sketch of Christian ethics.

“If, then, you were jointly raised up with Christ,” is a condition of reality (like the one in 2:20) and implies that the Colossians have, indeed, been so raised up. All of the following admonitions are based on this fact, which Paul assumes to be a fact. To be sure, “were raised up” is the positive counterpart of the negative “died” in 2:20, but the connection does not stop there. “You were raised up” reaches back much farther, for it repeats the “you were raised up” used in 2:12. Οὖν thus refers back to the whole of the previous part, in particular to what the Colossians have themselves experienced in their vital connection with the supreme God-man and his work which is so complete and mighty in every respect.

We need not again explain the mystical expression “jointly raised up with Christ”; see the exposition of “entombed with him,” “raised up” and “died with him” in 2:11, 12, 20. “Jointly raised up with Christ.” By this resurrection a new, spiritual life is created in us. Paul now describes its vital activities. The Judaizers had not experienced such a spiritual resurrection. No wonder their religious life consisted of decrees about material earthly things (2:16, 20, 21), the peculiar worship, humility, and severity to the body backed by an empty philosophy (2:8) and show of wisdom (2:23) ! The spiritual life of those who have been raised up with Christ is the opposite of the Judaistic religious life. Paul might merely have stated the objective fact that it is the opposite; he does better, he admonishes his readers to live the new life and to exhibit it as such an opposite. They must ever manifest the power of Christ’s resurrection as it is comprehended in their own spiritual resurrection and thus shows itself in their spiritual vitality.

“The things above keep seeking.” By transposing the verb and the object Paul emphasizes both. “Above” means “where Christ is,” our risen Lord, whose resurrection gave us our spiritual resurrection. He is in the glory of heaven, “sitting at God’s right” (with the feminine δεξιᾷ we supply χειρί, dative of place). The mystical language of this epistle does not go beyond the death, the entombment, and the resurrection; in Eph. 2:6 it touches also the enthronement of Christ. The right hand of God (Ps. 110:1) “is no fixed place in heaven, as the Sacramentarians assert, without any ground in the Holy Scriptures, but nothing else than the almighty power of God, in possession of which Christ is installed according to his humanity, realiter, that is, in deed and truth, sine confusione et exaequatione naturarum, that is, without confusion and equalizing of the two natures in their essence and essential properties,” C. Tr. 1025, 28.

One should study as a unit all the passages that speak of God’s right hand and of Christ’s sitting there. Then the view will disappear that Christ is in heaven as Enoch and Elijah are, of neither of whom it is said that they are at God’s right hand. Christ’s sitting at God’s right hand is the exercise of all the majesty and the power of deity according to his human nature. One cannot exalt only Christ’s divine nature, for this is incapable of exaltation since from eternity it is in the same infinite glory as the Father and the Spirit, yes, one in essence with them.

If this is understood (see also Eph. 1:20), two things will be noted: 1) death, entombment, resurrection, sitting at God’s right, all of which are possible only to the human nature and equally soteriological, all of which once more state what 1:13–23 and 2:9–15 say about the absolute supremacy of the person, power, work, and results. All of this the Judaizers did not perceive, as we have shown. 2) The absolute extent of Christ’s saving power above everything in nature and above all spirit beings (1:16; 2:10; and especially 2:15, on which see the exposition). This the Judaizers did not perceive; they imagined that demons still controlled material elements, and that, therefore, in order to shield ourselves we have to guard ourselves according to their Judaistic rules and regulations (2:16, 20, 21) and adopt their type of worship (2:18, 23). For that reason the exaltation of the human nature of the God-man is introduced at this point: he is sitting at God’s right hand.

Colossians 3:2

2 The things above keep minding, not the things on the earth!

We have the same reversal of the verb and the object. “Keep seeking” and “keep minding” have practically the same force. Lightfoot’s note: “You must not only seek heaven, you must think heaven,” puts too little into φρονεῖν which means not merely “to think” but “to mind,” to attend to, to devote ourselves to. And “the things above” are not heaven. These two admonitions do not say that we must ever strive to attain heaven and let earth go. “The things on the earth” are the στοιχεῖατοῦκόσμου (2:8, 20), the material, elementary things of the world. The religion of the Judaizers minded these things; hence their decrees about not handling, tasting, touching certain things, about eating and drinking, festivals and sabbaths. All these religious rules pertained to “the things on the earth” and feared that they were dangerous, that spirit powers were behind them, etc. Such minding of such things is not for the Colossians, but the very opposite, ever minding the things above.

We note that Paul repeats, again in the emphatic position, “the things above.” Of these he can say that we are both to seek and to mind them; “the things of earth” (when rightly understood) one minds only as the Judaizers do. Seek would not be fitting because 2:21 shows that they are to be avoided as being dangerous. If by their decrees the Judaizers not only forbade some things but also demanded certain others, Paul mentions these others nowhere, hence we do the same. “The things above” are defined as to their high nature by the clause “where Christ is” in his supreme exaltation, and thus they are the very opposite of the things on the earth of which the Judaizers were afraid. Note that they shunned these earthly things because they imagined them to be dangerous. The Colossians are to scorn this whole show of wisdom and the superstition which prompted the Judaizers. They were perfectly free to use all earthly things; no devils control any of them, Christ has utterly stripped all devils of power (2:15).

The things above are all the great and blessed, truly spiritual things that are where Christ is, that come from him to us who are joined spiritually to his death, entombment, and resurrection, things that we must ever seek and mind. We need not guess what these things are, Paul has told us: “the ransoming, the remission of our sins” (1:14), “all the treasures of the wisdom and the knowledge hid away” (2:3), all that he as the head supplies to all the body to make it grow with the growth of God (2:19). These things we must want and occupy ourselves with and not fill our religion with rules about material things and with superstitious philosophy regarding them. “Set your mind” (our versions) would be ingressive, but the two present imperatives occurring in v. 1, 2 are alike, are durative and not ingressive. Regarding φρονεῖν as meaning more than to think see its use in Phil. 2:2 (twice) and especially in 2:5.

Colossians 3:3

3 “For” substantiates the admonition about seeking and minding “the things above.” Unlike “the things on earth,” the stoicheia (2:8, 20) of which the Judaizers made so much in their religious philosophy (2:8) and manner of worship (θρησκεία, 2:18, 23) and their decreeing (2:20, 21), “the things above” are truly spiritual and hence invisible while “the things on earth,” which must not be handled, are plain and visible. It is then no wonder that when a Judaizer judges anyone’s religion he does so “in connection with eating and drinking or in the festival matter,” etc. (2:16), on the basis of tangible, visible things; he refuses the prize to anyone who does not worship according to his style with “the things he has seen” (2:18). Paul has told the Colossians to scorn all such judging and withholding of the prize and has added the reasons for such scorn (2:18–23). They are to keep on seeking and minding “the things above” which are truly spiritual and invisible. For you died, and your life has been hidden together with Christ in God; when Christ, your (some texts read “our”) life, shall be made visible, then also you together with him shall be made visible in glory. For this reason you are now to go on seeking and minding the invisible things above.

“You died” = 2:20: “died with Christ away from the elementary things of the world.” By means of that death which connected you with the saving death of Christ you became like a dead man as far as religious response to human tradition and decrees about earthly, material things is concerned. All paganism, all Judaism, and all Judaistic perversions of Christianity operated with scores of material things, “the things of the earth”; see the discussions of στοιχεῖα in Gal. 4:3, 9; Col. 2:8, 20.

“You died” = you got away from every bit of religion that operated with material things and with doing this or that with them. What does it matter to a dead man what anybody does with material, earthly things whether these are a part of his religion or otherwise? Paul might also have said, “you were entombed” (2:12), for a man who is entombed is dead and cares nothing for earthly things. Paul does touch upon this after a fashion when he writes: your life “has been hidden” just as he touches upon our spiritual resurrection with Christ when he speaks of our ζωή, our new, spiritual life. But “you died,” which repeats in brief the fuller statement of 2:20, expresses his thought in the clearest way.

This very death, however, gave us a “life” through our resurrection with Christ (2:12; 3:1), a life such as Judaizers know nothing about, one that from the beginning and even now “has been hidden together with Christ in God.” It is spiritual and thus invisible and hidden; full of vitality, indeed, so vital that it will pass through temporal, physical death unharmed, but operating with the intangible things it has in Christ (1:14; 2:3; we having been, filled in him, 2:10). It is hidden “with Christ in God,” with the Christ sitting at God’s right hand (v. 1), he, in fact, being “our life” (v. 4) as he himself is “the Life” (John 14:6). To all who in their religion deal only with “what things they have seen” (2:18) Christ is hidden (2 Cor. 4:4) and is revealed only to those who are risen with him (2 Cor. 4:6).

Hidden with Christ “in God” is our life—a tremendous thought. Yet God is the only fount of life; God raised up Christ to the life of infinite glory, and God raised us up to spiritual life with Christ. First John 3:2 also speaks of the hidden nature and the invisibility of this life: “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be,” and then adds, as does Paul: “that when he (Christ) shall appear, we shall be like him.” A death of this kind and a life of this exalted nature concern themselves with “the things above where Christ is at God’s right hand” and never with “the things on the earth” with which the Judaizers—and we may add pagans and Jews—are occupied religiously.

Colossians 3:4

4 Our life shall not remain thus hidden forever. It shall remain thus only until the time “when Christ shall be made visible” (note that Paul uses the same verb that is found in 1 John 3:2: be made manifest, public, visible) at his Parousia. This date is mentioned because then our bodies, too, shall be glorified. Paul significantly adds the apposition: Christ, “your (our) life”; Phil. 2:21: “for me to be living (is) Christ.” This is not substantial identification, nor is it only rhetorical. Joined spiritually to Christ, he is in us, and we in him, i.e., in a living connection by which he, the Life, fills us with spiritual, eternal life.

When that great day comes, Paul says, “then you, too, together with him (all the σύν are associative) shall be made visible in glory,” “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). Rom. 8:17. What shall then happen to the judgment of the haughty Judaizers who refused us the prize because we discarded all their decrees about earthly elements (2:16, etc.; 2:20, etc.)? What shall become of all their philosophy (2:8) and show of wisdom (2:23)? Well, here we have the reason that throughout our Christian life our one concern shall be with the things above and not with those on earth that fill our religion with the observance of things that perish by being used up (2:22).

In this first paragraph Paul sums up the whole Christian life in a comprehensive and a fundamental admonition which also carries us to the last day and to our final glorification. He often does this and lets the specifications follow as an elaboration.

The Life that Breaks with all the Old Vices since the New Man Has Been Put on

Colossians 3:5

5 Accordingly, render dead the members that are on the earth—as to fornication, uncleanness, passion, base desire, and the covetousness, which is of the nature of idolatry, because of which things there comes the wrath of God upon the sons of the disobedience, among whom you also walked at one time when you were living in these things.

In v. 3 (2:20) we have the fact: “you died.” When Paul now demands: “Accordingly deaden your members,” this does not mean that this dying was only ideal and is now to become real when we deaden our members. This view confuses regeneration and sanctification. Nor is our having died partial and is made complete by now striking dead our members. “You died” is an aorist, the act is complete; so also is its positive side, “you were raised up” (v. 1; 2:12). In accord with this very completeness of our death and our resurrection with Christ we are to render dead our members.

In Rom. 8:13 we have θανατοῦτε: “keep bringing death” upon the deeds of the body; in Gal. 5:24 we have ἐσταύρωσαν, “nail on the cross” the flesh. Both are conceptions that are somewhat different from the thought of our passage: “strike dead the members that are on the earth,” especially as to the object involved.

Romans 8:13 pictures the negative process of sanctification, bringing θάνατος or death upon the deeds of the body, which process continues as long as we have the body and its deeds. In Gal. 5:24 the aorist refers to the decisive act which nails the flesh to the cross in order cruelly, painfully to murder it there so that its career of crime shall cease once for all. In our passage, which also has the aorist, the decisive act is to strike dead the bodily members so that, being νεκρά dead, they shall become incapable of being used for any of the vices here listed and indicated. Yet our passage, like Rom. 8:13, is written to Christians. Galatians 5:24 states that the thing has already been done, the other two passages that we are now to do it. All of these passages express a truth: we constantly kill off the deeds of the body just as we crucified the flesh in the first place.

We strike our members dead summarily and leave them useless for all vices. The flesh is dethroned in us, its attempted usurpations for deeds of the body are constantly put to death as rebellious citizens are suppressed (Rom. 8:13), even the bodily members, which the flesh must have for its deeds, are struck dead so that, like dead things, they become quite useless instruments for the flesh.

The attributive phrase “upon the earth” gets its point from v. 2 where “the things on the earth” (the elementary, physical στοιχεῖα of the world with which the Judaizers busy themselves in their religion, (2:20; 2:8) are contrasted with “the things above” (1:14; 2:3, 10, “having been filled”). Our bodily members certainly do have to be used for the things on earth; but the way in which the Judaizers propose to use them in their decrees (2:16; 2:20, 21) ends only in satiating their flesh (2:23). A religion that operates with decrees about earthly things and bodily members on earth (“Handle not, nor taste, nor touch,” 2:21; do not eat or drink but fast as prescribed by the Judaizers; and do not do this or that on the festival and on the Sabbath, etc., 2:16), such a religion remains on the low level of the flesh which also has to have the bodily members for its deeds.

The attributive phrase “those on the earth” is thus decidedly pertinent. If regeneration has not taken place, whatever the members that are on earth do in the things that are on earth, whether they commit vices or do things that are decreed by Judaizers, is quite the same, for they achieve nothing but satiation of the flesh, now in one way, now in another. As we must ever turn to the things above and away from the things on earth, so once for all we must strike dead even our members on the earth so that they may be useless for the things on the earth.

We do not regard the accusatives that follow as appositions but as adverbial accusatives of reference or specification: “as to fornication,” etc. Compare this passage with Eph. 5:3–6. All of Paul’s lists are carefully arranged. Both here in v. 5 and again in v. 8 Paul has five, the half of the completeness expressed by ten. Let the reader himself complete these fives. Five is also secular, these are vices. “Fornication” and “uncleanness” go together as forming a most nasty pair, the one being specific, the other broad. “Passion” and “base desire” likewise form a pair, both are inward. Πάθος is not used by Paul in the sense of the Greek schools of ethical philosophy (C.-K. 842; Trench, Synonyms).

Bengel defines it as the morbus libidinis. It is like an inward fire that is kindled in the heart. Ἐπιθυμία is a vox media although it is usually used in an evil sense, which is placed beyond question by the adjective: “base desire,” reaching out for an object in order to satisfy itself.

These four are sexual and are thus joined to “covetousness” as is so often done in Scripture apparently because greed of money is also filthy. The idea that we have this grouping because it takes money to indulge in sexual vices is unsubstantiated. In most cases of sexual vice money is not even involved, and thousands of covetous men and women cling to their money and never use it for sexual vices. Here, as in Eph. 5:6, the damnableness of covetousness lies in the fact that its quality or nature (ἥτις, qualitative, also causal) is “idolatry,” worshipping gold instead of God. The clause is needed in order to show the enormity of the sin which even Christians often fail to recognize. A Catholic priest states that during his long years of service all kinds of sins and crimes were confessed to him in the confessional but never the sin of covetousness.

Why is the article used with this fifth noun? Not, as has been supposed, because it is the last of the group but because it alone has an attached relative clause (R. 758).

Colossians 3:6

6 “Because of which things there comes the wrath of God upon the sons of the disobedience.” This wrath is the reaction of God’s holiness and righteousness against sin. see Rom. 1:18. It comes not merely on the day of final judgment but whenever this wrath blazes forth in judgments on individuals and even on rotten nations. “Comes” is an iterative present tense. Considerations of grace and mercy hold back the coming; this is God’s long-suffering. But when the evil cup is full, the wrath descends.

Critics of the text debate as to whether the phrases “upon the sons of the disobedience” is genuine or is introduced from Eph. 5:6. The writer’s opinion is that the words are genuine; his reason for this opinion is the fact that both epistles were written at the same time, that in both epistles many expressions thus correspond in the most natural way; in fact, here not merely this phrase but the entire clause is found in both. The question as to how the phrase came to be omitted in some texts is like that asked regarding thousands of variants, for none of which the critics have a satisfactory explanation. We also note that the omission of this phrase leaves the clause just as incomplete as would its omission in Eph. 5:6.

On “the sons of the disobedience” see Eph. 2:2. This is the old, original disobedience, hence the article is used. “The sons” of it are brought forth by it and as “sons” continue it as their disobedient fathers did before them. Unbelief is also called disobedience, but why introduce such a restriction here? The Gentiles stifled even the voice of conscience and of the lex naturalis (Rom. 1:32). To make these sons of the disobedience Gnostic heretics is venturing upon the unprovable.

Colossians 3:7

7 Those who cancel the phrase from v. 6 naturally translate: “in which things” also you walked. This, however, produces an awkward repetition when Paul now adds: “when you were living in these things.” We retain the phrase in v. 6 and thus translate: “among whom also you walked at one time when you were living in these things.” As former Gentiles the Colossians, too, had walked among their pagan neighbors and were altogether like them. The constative historical aorist is in place, as is also the descriptive imperfect in the temporal clause: “when you were living in these things.” This imperfect, however, leads us to expect the next statement which by means of an aorist tells us how this former living in such vices is to cease.

Colossians 3:8

8 But now do you also put away from yourselves (middle; aorist; definitely, once for all) all of them—wrath, exasperation, meanness, blasphemy, shameful language out of your mouth! Never lie to each other—you having put off once for all the old man together with his practices and having put on the new man, the one made over new for real knowledge according to the image of him who created him, etc.

“Now” = since that fearful former time is past, thank God. “You also” = like other Christians. The aorist = “put away from yourselves for good and all”; yet this verb is not figurative for taking off clothing, as R., W. P., states, it is literal: rid yourselves completely of all these things. Paul cannot list them all; he has mentioned one sample group and now adds another, but the complete list would be much longer, and in other connections Paul lists also other items.

Here we again have five. Those listed in v. 5 harm the sinner himself; these harm other people. “Anger” and “wrath” are quite the same in English. It is true that the corresponding Greek terms are also often used in the same sense (Trench), the one only to strengthen the other (C.-K. 805). But in lists such as this and in Eph. 4:31 ὀργή and θυμός preserve their difference; θυμός = boiling agitation of the feelings, i.e., “exasperation.” see also Eph. 4:31 where the two are reversed. In both passages we have a climax. The exasperation (θυμός) may rise to wrath (ὀργή) (Eph. 4:31), or the wrath, getting beyond control, may rise to exasperation (our passage). We may have the words in either order because either word may be conceived as being the stronger.

The next step is κακία, “baseness” or “meanness” toward the person or the thing because of which a person is exasperated, Schlechtigkeit. This is not “malice” (our versions), for κακία = moral inferiority, “good-for-nothingness.” The next step is to curse or damn by “blasphemy.” The fifth, to hurl “out of his mouth” αἰσχρολογία, “vile or shameful language, dirty epithets.” A true progression indeed! Like the five items listed in v. 5 the five items of this verse stop short at the half and let the readers add the other five: to strike, to wound, etc.

Colossians 3:9

9 Lying is a different sort of harmful sin and is therefore listed separately with its own imperative: μὴψεύδεσθε. In the New Testament it is always used in the middle voice. As a translation for the negative present imperative R., W. P., offers us the choice between, “Stop lying,” and, “Do not have the habit of lying.” Still other turns are offered in R. 854. “Stop lying!” would, however, imply that the Colossians have hitherto been given to lying, which Paul certainly does not want to intimate. This present imperative wants to exclude all lying; we should translate: “Never lie to one another!” The reciprocal pronoun does not restrict the injunction to Christians as though we may lie to non-Christians, for the sense is: “to one another” no matter who the other person may be. The ethical question as to whether a lie is ever justified under any circumstance of life has been answered in connection with Eph. 4:25.

The two aorist participles—remember that in the Greek they have number, gender, and case—apply to the subject of the imperative which is also the subject of the previous imperative (v. 8) and also of the one preceding that (v. 5). So these aorist participles and their antecedent actions extend back through the entire exhortation: “you who have put off—and who have put on,” i.e., because you have done these two fundamental things. The figure is that of drawing off and drawing on a garment; we get away from the one (ἀπό), we get to be in (ἐν) the other. The idea of the garment is, however, not strong in the Greek (see the participle in 2:15): slip out of and away from—slip into and get to be in. But these are not two separate acts, the two are one; for never for an instant are we, as it were, naked; nor is there an interval between the getting rid of the old man and the acquisition of the new. We put off and put on just as we repent and believe, etc.; but in the very nature of the case, we do these things when grace with its divine power works this putting off and putting on.

“The old man” is old because he is derived from Adam by way of our natural birth. It is the inborn sinful nature plus its habitus with all the sinful thoughts, motives, emotions, volitions. Not merely this or that was wrong with us and had to be put off and removed; but our whole old nature must be removed. The figure of a garment should not mislead us; we should read it in the light of the death and the resurrection mentioned in 2:20; 3:3; 2:12; 3:1. The operation is by no means painless; it is violent, it is called a crucifixion (Rom. 6:6). The old man is not converted, he cannot be; he is not renewed, he cannot be. He can only be replaced by the new man, by a creative act of God and by no less.

Colossians 3:10

10 The Greek has two words for “new,” νέος and καινός, both of which are opposites of παλαιός or “old.” We get the sense of “old” from Eph. 4:23; it means old as being full of the destructive corruption of lust and deceit—rottenly old. The new man is “new” (νέος) in the sense that he did not exist before, that God created him, that his being then began in us. Yet this newly created man is one who is being constantly renewed by God (καινός in the participle), he undergoes the newness of being continuously renovated, of having every stain cleaned off, of having the original newness restored. In v. 9 the two aorist participles ἀπεκδυσάμενοι and ἐνδυσάμενοι denote a decisive momentary act while the present participle in v. 10, ἀνακαινούμενον, denotes continuousness and iteration.

Paul writes, “the old man together with his πράξεις,” “practices,” which word is at times used in the evil sense of what is perpetrated. The old man and all his products are abolished. Paul has just named some of them. The new man who is newly created takes his place, and this man is constantly restored to his original newness “for ἐπίγνωσις, genuine spiritual knowledge, according to the image of him who created him.” Yes, God created him, not by the use of omnipotence, but by the creative power of grace and the gospel. Nor is this man who is thus created left to shift for himself, he is constantly renewed by God.

But now, instead of saying renewed for good works (as in Eph. 2:10) and thus stating a direct opposite of the evil “practices” of the old man, Paul goes deeper and says: “constantly renewed for epignosis in accord with his Creator.” For out of this true, spiritual knowledge arise all true spiritual good works. It accords with the image of God (on εἰκών see 1:15). Ephesians 4:24 informs us that the image consists in righteousness and holiness which belong to truth. With it goes this knowledge as being in accord with the image of God. Adam was created in God’s image. In Adam this image existed in its pristine newness and made him like God in righteousness and holiness.

And it was combined with true knowledge and thus with truth as held by this knowledge. In these respects Adam was a miniature copy of God. This image which was lost in consequence of the fall God re-creates by grace and constantly renews unto the spiritual knowledge which keeps the image clean and unspoiled in us.

How, then, can we Christians go back to the filth of the old man (v. 5), to all his old viciousness (v. 8)? These have been swept out of us by God’s creative grace, and our new man who is ever renewed in true knowledge will certainly deaden our bodily members to sin and will make them instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:13). Paul reserves the presentation of this activity of the new man for his next paragraph and thus in this verse does not go beyond true knowledge.

Colossians 3:11

11 Paul concludes: Where there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and foreskin, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but everything and in every way Christ, and his “where” refers to the condition just described: where the old man is abolished and the new has been created, anywhere where this is the case “there is not” Greek and Jew, etc. Ἔνι is the strong form of ἐν; ἐστί is always understood, and this word is always used with a negative, οὐκἔνι. Wherever what Paul says exists there is (not: “cannot be,” R. V.) no human prerogative or human deficiency in religious standing, let the Judaizers judge and refuse or accord their prize as they will (2:16, 18).

Paul runs through a list of the most vital differences found in his day. “Greek and Jew” were opposed to each other, the Greek emphasizing his Greek culture and high social standing, the Jew boasting of his divine religion. Both prerogatives disappear before the spiritual glory of the new man. “Greek” does not mean “Gentile” nor “pagan” nor a native of Greece but any man who was educated in Greek culture. “Circumcision and foreskin” were also opposed to each other, the Jews and the Judaizers regarding the former a high prerogative and the latter either a fatal or a serious deficiency. In Colosse the Judaizers, as we have seen, at least boasted of their circumcision. Where the new man is, this boast evaporates.

The next four terms are independent, hence there are no “ands.” “Barbarian” (Rom. 1:14) is one who cannot speak the Greek language (not just a savage); a “Scythian” is not simply a native of Scythia but the climax of barbarism, a savage. The Greek despised the Jew; circumcision despised foreskin; even a barbarian scorned a Scythian.

In the last of the four pairs the words occur in reverse order: “slave—free,” a difference that ran through the whole world at that time when millions were slaves. The poor slave was looked down upon by the free man. By reversing the last pair Paul closes the list rhetorically in a skilful way. The view that Paul could have continued with rich and poor, old and young does not take into account Paul’s rhetoric.

Were all of these types members of the church in Colosse? This list does not prove that fact as some think. The point of this list is not by means of examples to be found in Colosse to show the highest human prerogatives and the lowest human deficiences but to show that both were found in the world of that day, that men in general made these distinctions.

There is one prerogative in Colosse and everywhere else in the church that erases all differences between high and low. This is the new man. Paul phrases this thought in a striking way: “but everything and in every way—Christ.” Note that “Christ” is most emphatically placed last. He is indeed absolutely “everything” in the new man, and all that men may name beside him in a religious way is—nil.

Some overlook what the emphatic “Christ” means, namely all that Paul has said of him in this epistle, notably in 1:13–23, and in 2:9–15, but also all else. This God-man is the Christ who is everything in every way. He is τὰπάντα (definite): “all things” that are; outside of him none exist. Neither here nor in Eph. 1:23 nor elsewhere is ἐνπᾶσι masculine as the preceding τὰπάντα indicates. Read the whole together: Christ is “the all in all ways.” On the phrase “in all ways” (adverbial) see the examples given in B.-P. 1012.

Some misunderstand Paul’s thought and quote various passages to show that we are all one in Christ Jesus, that all national, social, and other differences are wiped out, that “brother” should be substituted for all of them. But that is not what Paul says here although he says it elsewhere. Here he says that the new man alone counts, that Christ is everything in all and every way, that all else is nothing in religion. The whole epistle is based on this thought because this meets the Judaizers who claimed that Christians needed also a few other things to make their religion what it ought to be (2:16, etc.; 2:20, etc.). Only by observing their decrees will Christians be safe from what devils can do to them through the material, earthly stoicheia or elements. This perverted notion Paul explodes.

The things that are dangerous are the old vices—these avoid! These hurt the new man, these militate against Christ. Away with the superstition about earthly elements! For all of us Christ is the all in all ways!

The Life Full of Christian Virtues, Rich in the Word

Colossians 3:12

12 Here is the positive side of the Christian life, here are the virtues. This paragraph is the complement to the preceding, the two together are the elaboration of the summary paragraph (v. 1–4). Accordingly put on, as elect of God, saints and beloved ones, tender feeling of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; enduring one another and forgiving each other if anyone against anyone may have complaint, as also the Lord forgave you, thus you, too.

Like the οὖν occurring in 2:16; 3:1, 5, this connective “accordingly” also here does not connect one sentence with the preceding sentence but one paragraph with the preceding paragraph. Risen with Christ (v. 1–3), we get rid of the old vices (v. 5–11) and thus put on the real Christian virtues. Paul continues the idea of putting on which he mentioned in v. 10, for the new man there spoken of is the possessor of all the virtues now listed. In regeneration we put on the new man, we receive the new, spiritual life. Verse 10 adds the thought that its Creator constantly renews this new man unto true knowledge. It is this renewal of which Paul now speaks.

“Accordingly put on” these Christian virtues. We have already noted that the figure of a garment should not be stressed. These virtues, like “the new man,” are not a mere garment that one puts on outwardly and then also takes off again and that in time wears out and must be thrown away. The aorist indicates the permanent acquisition of these virtues.

We should note that this is the only place in the entire letter where Paul inserts something that resembles an address to his readers, and that this form of address is not “brethren” or “my beloved,” which would express their relation to him, but a triple designation that indicates their relation to God: “as elect of God, saints, and beloved ones.” All Christians, of course, deserve these titles. “As” does not mean “in so far as” but “as in fact you are” what these titles convey. Yet Paul is not using them because they are merely beautiful and expressive terms in general; they are the proper and the most pertinent terms for this epistle.

The Judaizers did not judge the Colossian Christians to be “elect of God”; the Judaizers did not accord them the prize “as God’s elect,” etc. (see 2:16, 18). According to the Judaizers the Colossian Christians had no such standing because they did not observe the Judaistic decrees (2:20), did not observe what the Judaizers regarded as essential in warding off spiritual harm that might come to them from earthly, material elements (stoicheia, 2:8, 20) which demon spirits used to damage men’s souls. Over against this judgment of the Judaizers Paul does not, indeed, set his judgment but God’s; “as” implies that the Colossians, like Paul himself, are accepting God’s judgment about themselves and not that of the Judaizers.

The absence of articles means that there are many others, all of whom are Christians like the Colossians, who are also “elect of God” and must be considered “as” such by all. God accords them the prize, he is the arbiter and not the self-appointed Judaizers. God regards the Colossian Christians as his elect, as his saints, as those who have been beloved by him (perfect tense: continuing to be so beloved now and ever). We regard all three as coordinate nouns and do not regard the last two as adjective modifiers of the first: “holy and beloved elect ones.” Ἅγιοι has the same force it had in 1:2: “saints,” people separated unto God by justification and regeneration, by the death, entombment, and resurrection of which Paul speaks in 2:12, 20; 3:1, 3, by the reconciliation of which he speaks in 1:21, etc. At that time they entered into possession of God’s love in Christ Jesus ever after to receive this love and its blessings. The three terms are synonymous, each casts light upon the other.

The verbal noun ἐκλεκτοί is like a passive past participle, “of God” is the genitive of the agent. Some are inclined to date the election at the time the Colossians were efficaciously called (v. 15). If Paul had intended to say this he would have used κλητοί (Rom. 1:6). These two verbals are not identical. “Elect of God” must be dated in eternity (Eph. 1:4). Like the ἐκλεκτοί occurring in Matt. 22:14, the verbal contains the entire elective act of God who, with the whole massa perdita of the whole of mankind before his omniscient eyes, chose as his own all those whom his grace in Christ Jesus would succeed in saving and bringing to glory. These are God’s saints, his beloved, his elect.

Because they are such and because they are of this number Paul calls upon the Colossians to put on all that ought to grace them in their lives. The three titles are positive designations, hence Paul does not use them in the negative paragraph (v. 5–11) which points out the things Christians must put away but does use them here in the positive paragraph which indicates all that Christians ought to put on.

Instead of being influenced by superstition regarding earthly elements and observing silly human decrees (2:20, etc.) Christians put off all the vices of the old man and put on all the virtues of the new, spiritual life. Note that, like the vices, the virtues here listed by Paul pertain to the second table of the law. Our relation and our devotion to God ever show themselves in our attitude and our conduct toward our brethren and our fellow men. 1 John 4:20, 21. Our love to God is attested by our love to men in Christ Jesus. Away with the philosophy, tradition of men, decrees about material elements (2:8), all of which are an empty show of wisdom (2:23)!

In Phil. 2:1, σπλάγχνα and οἰκτιρμοί are two virtues; these terms are there used as a synonymous pair. The former really means “viscera” and not “bowels” (A. V.), which latter makes us think of the intestines. The Greek connects the tender emotions with a stirring of the inner physical organs. Thus to the Greek “viscera” means “tender feeling” (as in Phil. 2:1); yet a genitive may be added, which specifies the kind of tenderness. This is the case in our passage: “tender feeling of compassion,” “compassionate feeling.” “Kindness,” χρηστότης (Rom. 2:4), is broader.

Compassion goes out to the distressed and the suffering, goodness or kindness to all whom we can benefit. These two are a pair. They both prompt us to bestow something and thus in a way place us above those upon whom we make the bestowal.

The next two may be paired with the first two, but they place us below others: “lowly-mindedness, meekness,” etc. On the former consult Phil. 2:3 and the great example of Jesus (Phil. 2:5, etc.). The virtue admired by pagans was domination, powerful self-assertion, assuming a position above other men; hence ταπεινοφροσύνη was despicable to the pagan mind, a poor, low mind that could not assert itself and lord it over anybody. The Christian idea of humility lay beyond pagan ethics. A noble sense was put into the word by the spirit of Christ. Pride has vanished. Others are not beneath our feet. We ourselves are poor sinners. We do not lower ourselves while we are great as Chrysostom thought; we know that we are not great, hence we never even pretend that we are great. So we move among men.

Allied with humility is “meekness,” here meekness toward men. Read Trench regarding the two terms. Of the latter he says: “He that is meek indeed will know himself a sinner among sinners; or, if in one case (meaning Christ’s case, Matt. 11:29) he could not know himself such, yet bearing the sinner’s doom. And this will teach him (the meek Christian) to endure meekly the provocation with which they may provoke him, not to withdraw himself from the burdens which their sin may impose upon him, Gal. 6:1; 2 Tim. 2:25; Tit. 3:2”—three excellent examples in these three passages. Meekness was elevated to this height by Christianity.

Comporting with these two is “longsuffering,” the mind holding out long under provocations, injustice, inflictions, not giving way to resentment and retaliation.

We thus have five virtues like the two fives found in v. 5 and in v. 8 and yet not like them after all, for Paul adds two more that are expressed by two participles that denote actions. In this way he gets the sacred seven. For the five are Christian virtues and deserve to be completed so as to obtain seven. Otherwise five is the number of rhetorical incompleteness and ten the number of the greatest completeness. Thus when the writer stops with five items, the reader is asked to add the other five so as to have ten.

Colossians 3:13

13 “Enduring one another” means holding out when burdens are heaped up. These need not be insults and injuries, they may be labors for us; they may be faults, thoughtlessness on the part of others. Finally, “forgiving each other if anyone against anyone (note the juxtaposition) may have complaint,” ἐάν implying that such instances may be expected to occur. Μομφή is Beschwerde, Vorwurf. The point to be noted is that this word includes both justified complaint and complaint about fancied wrong. Paul says: “Suppose anyone of you has such a complaint against someone else, no matter who it may be, then graciously forgive.”

This does not mean: Complain a while until pardon is asked and amends are made to satisfy you and then at last condescend to forgive. That is what too many think. Hence we have so many complaints and eomplainers. Then the pastors, too, think that they must step in and decide the merits of the case, with the result that both parties often complain against the pastor and his unfairness in judging. That is the wrong way to settle quarrels and complaints. Paul says: “The moment you have a complaint against anyone, graciously forgive. Bury it at once in genuine forgiveness.” This is what pastors must insist on when complaints are brought to them. When this is properly done, no quarrel will arise; it will be extinguished at the very source. See the fuller elaboration in Eph. 4:32.

Do this, Paul says, “as also the Lord forgave you, thus you, too.” The latter expression needs no verb. This is the model for us because it is at the same time the most impelling motive. Matt. 18:21–35. Since everything has been forgiven us, how can we hold a little complaint against anyone? The reading that has “Lord” seems correct; “God” is used in Eph. 4:32, forgiveness being attributed equally to both.

Colossians 3:14

14 Paul has a cluster of seven in v. 12, 13; he crowns it with love. Above all these things, moreover, the love! which means bond of the completeness. And the peace of Christ, let it be arbiter in your hearts! for which you were also called in one body. And (ever) be thankful!

Some interpreters think that “put on” is to be supplied and then make love the grand outer robe to be put on over the seven virtues and call this the bond that holds them together. Paul begins a new sentence; he omits the verb and thus has an exclamation with its own imperative force. “Above all these things” = as being of even greater importance. “The love” with the article as well as “the completeness” speak of these as definite ideas. The German understands at once, for he, too, says: die Liebe, die Vollstaendigkeit. We are not to think of love as a general quality nor of completeness as a general condition but of the specific love and the specific completeness known to Paul and to all his Christian readers. If someone’s English-thinking mind feels it necessary to supply a verb, let it reconstruct the thought in this way: “Above all these things have the love,” the article to indicate what we Christians call genuine love.

Ἀγάπη = the love of intelligent comprehension and of corresponding purpose (see John 3:16; 21:15; Matt. 5:44); it is distinct from φιλία. Our love is always the product of faith, for Paul is here addressing believers. Warfield’s idea that love sees value in its object is incorrect. When God loved the world which was full of sin he saw that all value had departed from the world, yet his love resolved with corresponding purpose to restore and even to increase the value that had been lost.

The relative ὅ, neuter, agrees in gender with neither “love” (feminine) nor with “bond” (masculine); when B.-D. 132 changes the gender, he does so without a warrant. The antecedent is “love,” but love as to what it means in this connection and not as to what it is in itself. Ὅἐστι = “which means.” Here love means: “bond of the completeness,” of the τελειότης or condition that has reached the τέλος or goal, call it “perfectness” as do our versions as long as perfectionism is not thereby understood. Paul might have said simply that the real “love” means the real “completeness” (attainment of the goal). He says just a little more when he adds “bond” of this completeness: love is the completeness as to its binding power. State it in this way: the (real) love of which we Christians speak means for us a cementing bond that belongs to the completeness which we Christians know as our goal.

The genitive is possessive. It is not objective, for this completeness needs no bond to hold it together. It might be a subjective genitive: this completeness uses a bond, one that binds us Christians together whenever and wherever this completeness or goal attainment is reached in any measure. The context does not suggest that the bond is a girdle, that love holds all the garments, the seven virtues, together (R., W. P.). The appositional as well as the adjectival genitive are excluded by the article with the genitive. Love is “a perfect bond” (adjectival genitive) seems to be an attractive thought but overlooks both the relative ὅ and the article with the genitive.

The seven virtues which Paul lists in v. 12, 13 help to bind together and thus are already bonds. Paul says: “Do not fail to add love, namely as the true perfection’s own most essential bond.” The thought is not that love binds the seven virtues together; they need no tie to bind them together, for they of their own accord unite in drawing and in keeping Christians together. Love, however, stands above them, for it is true perfection’s own most wonderful bond.

But why should Paul speak about completeness and about a bond and about virtues that unite Christian hearts? The answer is that the Judaizers denied the Colossians the prize (2:16–19), denied that they had reached the true mark and goal with their type of Christianity, denied it because the Colossians did not observe the Judaistic decrees about eating, drinking, festivals, superstitious avoidance of many physical things. The Judaizers gave the prize to those who zealously observed their decrees as the bond of completeness. Over against all such Judaistic decrees about material things Paul sets the seven distinctive Christian virtues that hold our hearts together, and true Christian love crowns them, the genuine perfection’s bond. The Lord awards the prize to those who have this τελειότης, this completeness. Human decrees are nothing in his sight.

Dealing, as they do, with στοιχεῖα or material things, such decrees of men never unite hearts spiritually. The seven Christian virtues do, and love crowns them as perfection’s own best spiritual bond.

Colossians 3:15

15 Therefore Paul adds: “And the peace of Christ,” the peace he bestows, “let it be arbiter in your hearts, for which (peace) you also were called in one body, and (ever) be thankful” for that. This is the peace of Paul’s greeting (1:2); it refers to a state when God is our friend and all is well with us, it is the objective condition that comes from God as our Father (1:2) through Christ as the giver who has made this peace for us. It is ever to be the arbiter in our hearts, the judge and referee who decides to whom the prize must be accorded. This is the verb that was used in 2:18. The Judaizers wanted to set themselves up as arbiters by awarding the crown and prize according to obedience to their decrees and denying it to true Christians like the Colossians. Paul says the true arbiter is right in your own hearts; it is Christ’s own peace and no outside, self-appointed Judaizer.

Paul might have said that Christ is the arbiter; but the Judaizers claimed that their decrees accorded with Christ who observed the ceremonial Jewish laws. The peace of Christ does not come through regulations about material things but through Christ’s ransoming and remission of sins (1:14), through his reconciliation which was effected in the body of his flesh by means of his death (1:22). This peace is the true arbiter when we are presented as holy, blemishless, and blameless before Christ (1:22). Ever do what accords with this peace of Christ, and this peace will crown you with the prize, let Judaizers say what they will.

“Rule” in our versions misses the point of βραβεύω which means “to act as an umpire,” as an arbiter to decide with finality to whom the prize is to go. Nor is “arbitrate” (R. V. margin) correct, for this means to compose differences in a dispute. When a race is run, there is nothing to arbitrate, someone comes out ahead, the umpire gives him the prize. Let the Judaizers shout that the Colossians lack Christian completeness and dare not be accorded the prize. The Colossians are to listen to Christ’s own peace speaking in their own hearts.

Paul, as it were, personifies peace, for that peace speaks with Christ’s voice. It accords the prize to those who have this peace in their hearts, who live and act accordingly. We may translate: “Let the peace of Christ accord the prize in your hearts.” Indeed, there is where it is accorded and not before the reviewing stand of the self-appointed Judaistic umpires.

For this peace, Paul says, you were also called in one body, i.e., to have this peace, thus to have it award the prize to you for being complete, “in one body,” that is not tied together, like the Judaizers, by their man-made decrees but by genuine Christian virtues (v. 12) and true Christian love (completion’s highest tie or bond). “You were called” means effectively called by the gospel, by grace. That call, which made you one body of true Christians, gave you the peace of Christ, which is ever to assure you in your own hearts that yours is the prize, and let no voice of a Judaizer cry down the voice of this peace in your hearts. “In one body,” not merely as separate individuals, were the Colossians called for the peace of Christ. The Judaizers vilified them as a body and tried to destroy the bond that kept them one body that had the assuring voice of Christ’s peace in their hearts.

Let that peace accord the prize, Paul says, “and be thankful” (present imperative: ever thankful). Indeed, who would not be ever and ever thankful to have Christ’s peace acting the umpire in his heart, assuring him and the whole body of Christians of the prize of being true Christians, elect of God, saints, and beloved ones (v. 12)? The translation, “Keep on becoming thankful,” overlooks the fact that γίνεσθαι is extensively used in place of εἶναι, “ever be thankful” is entirely correct.

Colossians 3:16

16 Instead of paying attention to the Judaizers or to any others who may try to disturb them with their notions, the Colossians are advised to abide by the Word. The Word of Christ, let it dwell in you richly in all wisdom, you teaching and admonishing yourselves with psalms, hymns, spiritual odes (see Eph. 5:19 on these three terms), with grace singing in your hearts unto God! And everything whatever you may be doing in word or in work, (do) all in the name of the Lord Jesus, thanking God the Father through him!

“The Word of Christ” matches “the peace of Christ” used in v. 15. This is the Word of that Christ whom Paul has described at length in the infinite supremacy of his nature, his power, and his saving work. His peace, his Word are, indeed, the supreme gifts for Christians.

“The Word of Christ” does not exclude the Old Testament but includes the additional Word that Christ gave to his apostles who were to transmit it to the church. Although it was as yet only partly written, the New Testament was abundantly transmitted orally. “Let it dwell in you richly in all wisdom” = let it inhabit you as if you were the house and home of this Word, let it do this in a rich way by filling every nook and corner of your being with its blessed, spiritual wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge in the right and the wise way. This Word of Christ is supreme and not the philosophy of empty deceit, the tradition of men (2:8), the decrees of Judaizers with their show of wisdom (2:20–23).

The Greek participles have number, gender, and case and are thus used with more precision than English participles. That is the case here: “you teaching and admonishing yourselves with psalms,” etc. Our versions make ἑαυτούς reciprocal: “one another”; it is reflexive: “yourselves.” When we sing our psalms and our hymns in our Christian worship, all of us sing together, and we by no means chant the instructive and the admonitory words only to our fellow singers, nor do they chant them to us, we all say them first and foremost to our own selves. We speak as one body with this body present. The reflexive pronoun is correct. Think how rich our hymns are in doctrine.

Thus they teach and instruct in a most beautiful form, in a form that is readily memorized and thus easily retained. Psalms and hymns are full of imperatives such as: “O bless the Lord, my soul!” This is self-admonition.

The texts vary between “in grace” and “in the grace,” but there is no appreciable difference between these two readings. The commentators, however, offer various interpretations such as: singing “about” grace, singing in a lovely, gracious way, singing in thankfulness (χαρίς being taken in the sense of “thanks”). “In your hearts to God’ is by some referred to silent singing that is heard by God alone. But this can scarcely be the meaning of Paul. Psalms, hymns, spiritual odes are to be sung aloud. Paul is thinking especially of congregational singing, “in one body” (v. 15). This singing is ἐνχάριτι, “in connection with” God’s grace, the grace that has made us what we are, the grace in which we live spiritually. It is this connection (ἐν) that makes us sing.

So also this singing is in our hearts and not only on our lips and in our mouths. All of this music with all its instructive and admonitory words resounds in our inmost hearts when our lips sound it forth in the congregation. Many church choirs and many other singers in the church might note this phrase. All this singing is to be “to God,” to his praise and his glory. The more its instruction and admonition fill us with wisdom, the more God’s grace overflows in our hearts, the more will it be “to God,” acceptable to him. This is the θρησκεία or worship that is acceptable to God, the very opposite of the self-chosen worship of the Judaizers (2:22, 23) which is in accord with the precepts and teachings of men and has only a show of wisdom.

Colossians 3:17

17 Paul has just spoken about public worship; but the spirit of it and the riches of the wisdom of the Word of Christ permeate the entire life, everything we may do “in word or in work.” Πᾶν views a matter as a whole (singular), πάντα as a multiplicity (plural). It is typical of Paul to combine the two numbers. To do “all things in the name of the Lord Jesus” means “in connection with the revelation of the Lord Jesus.” Ὄνομα is frequently used in the New Testament and always means “name” in the sense of revelation by which the Lord makes himself known to us, by which we know and apprehend him. All that reveals him is his ὌΝΟΜΑ, his NAME. Note that “the Name of the Lord Jesus” (articles are not needed in the Greek) follows and matches “the Word of Christ.”

“In” is not mystical; the phrase does not mean merely “in the spirit of the Lord Jesus” or “with his authority.” It means that absolutely everything (even our eating and drinking, 1 Cor. 10:31) is to be done in the light of the revelation of our Lord and harmonize with that revelation. It ever reveals Jesus as our Savior-Lord to whom we belong absolutely and altogether. The omission of the imperative makes the injunction stronger.

“And be thankful” (v. 15) is repeated with a participle which is enriched by the dative and by the phrase: “thanking God the Father through him” (compare Eph. 5:20). Indeed, when we do everything in our Lord’s name we shall constantly be reveling in the sunshine of gratitude to our heavenly Father, all this gratitude being mediated by our Lord Jesus (διά) in whose name and revelation we live our lives with all that we speak and do. ὉΘεὸςπατήρ is really one term although the second noun is an apposition; that is why the second noun needs no article. The English rendering “to God the Father,” with its article before the second noun, is only our idiom for the First Person of the Trinity.

Paul pictures the true Christian life in contrast with the life of the Judaizers and with the way in which these Judaizers wanted the Colossians to shape their lives: full of superstitious fears about earthly material things, carefully observing their rules and regulations (verses 16, 20, 21) lest demon powers damage them through earthly elements. The whole worship of true Christians is filled with the Word of Christ, its teaching and its admonition in psalms and hymns, all pure grace makes their hearts happy and joyful; the whole activity of this Christian life moves in the sphere of the name and revelation of the Lord Jesus, and they are filled with thanksgiving to God through him. All superstition has disappeared. What can harm them when they are with this Lord? Only thanksgiving overflows from their happy hearts and lips, thanksgiving to God the Father.

Apply all this to ourselves today over against all errorists who in new ways want to foist upon us their human decrees and regulations for producing the complete Christian life. Away with fears about this and that. Christ’s Word and his Name are our delightful guide.

The Christian Life for the Various Groups in the Congregation

Colossians 3:18

18 Compare Eph. 5:22–6:9. Yet in Ephesians the whole section is dominated by the great conception of the Una Sancta in which the family relation is placed. In Colossians the true Christian family life is placed in opposition to the Judaistic misconceptions which do not find the Christian τελειότης or completeness in obedience to the Word of Christ (v. 16), not in doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus (v. 17) but in obedience to the philosophy (2:8) and show of wisdom (2:23) embodied in Judaistic decrees (2:20). Over against such silly notions Paul here places what the Lord in his wisdom and his grace bids wives, husbands, etc., do in their connection with him. These directions are not novelties but the simple, fundamental obligations of the Word. As is done in Ephesians, so here wives, children, and slaves are placed first.

You wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as was (ever) fitting in the Lord. The articles “the wives” “to the husbands” are intended to distinguish classes and thus make the terms objective although we translate “you wives,” “to your hubands.” Christian subjection to the husband is the obligation of the wife. The very brevity of the statement shows that we should not read an ulterior application into Paul’s word as though in Colosse the wives were emancipating themselves from proper submission. We cannot say that the Judaizers were trying to alter the status of wives. All that we are able to gather from what Paul says about the Judaistic decrees is that they were imposed as being vital for the true Christian life and were thus superior to the simple obligations which the Lord imposes, as upon wives, so upon husbands, children, etc. Keep to these obligations, Paul says. The wives measure up fully and completely to their obligation as wives when they submit themselves (probably a direct middle, R. 807) to their husbands “as it was (ever) fitting in the Lord.”

B.-D. 352, 2 and R. 887 and 919, etc., do not explain this imperfect tense. It is idiomatic and conceives the fittingness as continuing in the past. Thus this tense was used when the present showed a violation of this past condition; but also, as here, when no such violation is occurring in the present. The idea is that it was ever fitting, is so now, and that it is recognized by Paul’s readers who thus also will keep on doing what was ever fitting “in connection with the Lord.” However, all that Paul has said about “the Lord” and our connection with him should be borne in mind when we now read the phrase, especially 1:13, etc.; 2:9, etc. The Lord directs. What is fitting in our connection with him is the one thing we do “in his name” (v. 17).

Colossians 3:19

19 You husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. These articles have the same force. The verb means intelligent and purposeful love which goes beyond mere affection (φιλεῖν). If it be asked why in the case of wives and of children Paul introduces a reference to the Lord and does not do so in the case of the husbands, the answer is that in v. 18 “in the Lord” is by no means applicable only to the wives (Eph. 5:25, etc.); we may also add that husband and wife are one to Paul (Eph. 5:28–33). The whole Christian marital relation is “in the Lord.”

“Be not bitter toward them” is added because the wives are to be subject to their husbands. One easily becomes bitter toward an inferior. A husband is not to treat his wife as a subject, as an inferior person in the home. This negative is on the order of a litotes: ever be considerate toward them in the way described in Eph. 5:28, etc.

Colossians 3:20

20 You children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord. Here father and mother are placed on the same level as far as the child is concerned, and the child’s obedience is his one obligation, all is to be done “in connection with the Lord,” which this epistle applies to the parents as well as to the children. We thus raise no question about the phrase κατὰπάντα, “in all things” or “in all respects.”

Colossians 3:21

21 In order that no improper commands be given to children Paul now writes: You fathers, provoke not your children lest they be disheartened. Although this is addressed to the fathers, the mothers are not to be excluded. Yet the father is the head of the house. The verb forbids every action of this kind. Although the verb is a vox media (it is used in the good sense in 2 Cor. 9:2), it is here to be understood in the evil sense of stirring up improperly by inconsiderate or even unjust or wrong treatment. No parent who wants his child to obey him “in the Lord” will treat his child so that it becomes downhearted, gives up, loses its cheerful willingness.

Paul uses but a few words, yet volumes might be written on the sorrows and even the tragedies of children as R., W. P., points out. Paul demands Christian parental consideration for children.

Colossians 3:22

22 You slaves, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not in eyeservices as men-pleasers but in simpleness of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you may be doing, work from the soul as for the Lord and not for men, having come to know that from the Lord you will duly receive the due return gift of the inheritance. For the Lord Christ keep slaving! For he who does wrong will carry away what he did wrong, and there is no respect of persons.

The brevity of what Paul says to all the other groups makes the expanded form of what he says to slaves stand out the more. The reason is obvious: Paul is returning the slave Onesimus to his master Philemon to be received by him as a Christian brother. None of the Christian slaves in Colosse are to get wrong ideas about their relation to their earthly masters, about the kind of service they owe their masters as slaves, or about the gravity of any wrong they may do their masters. Onesimus had gravely wronged Philemon by running away. Paul condones no wrong of any kind on the part of any slave. On the question of slaves and also their number in the empire see Eph. 6:5.

The Christian slave’s great obligation is obedience “in all things (the same phrase that was used with reference to children) to his master according to the flesh,” meaning the body. We may translate: “their bodily masters.” The whole relation is one only of this transient, earthly type and not a matter of the spirit. This obedience is not to manifest itself “in eyeservices as men-pleasers (so many workers who are not slaves render only that kind of service) but in singleness or simplicity of heart (without a fold in the heart, under which to hide a false motive, without duplicity or ulterior motive), fearing the Lord” whose eyes see through and through us. This is the proper fear and not that caused by the lash which the human master may apply or have applied. Paul’s language is exceedingly plain.

Colossians 3:23

23 He expands: “Whatever you may be doing, ever be working from the soul (see this phrase in Eph. 6:6) as for the Lord and not for men.” Here is the secret for all who work for other men, whether they are slaves or free employees: “Throw your soul into the work as if your one employer were the Lord!”

Colossians 3:24

24 The aorist participle is causal: “because you have come to know,” aorist: have reached that point of knowledge. Earthly masters may reward a good slave; again they may not. A good Christian employee must never get the thought that his employer will give him no more for throwing his soul into the work than for just working along like other employees do. He has come to know that he is working for the Lord, no matter what his lowly job may be, and “that from the Lord (emphatic) he will duly receive the due return gift” of what is more than wages or pay in money, of what is far beyond all earning, namely “the (heavenly) inheritance” (appositional genitive, R. 498). Ἀπό in both the verb and the noun = duly, measured, however, not by human desert or claim but hy the generosity and magnanimity of the Lord’s grace. Ἀντί in the noun = return, δόσις = gift: the Lord will give in due return what in infinite grace he desires to give.

No wonder Paul exclaims: “For the Lord Christ keep slaving!” The imperative is so much more forceful than the indicative would be, so we prefer to call this the imperative. The R. V. has the latter; the A. V. even adds “for” on most slender authority.

Colossians 3:25

25 “For” belongs in this verse. The δέ is a mistaken reading, “but” in the A. V. This δέ rests on the assumption that Paul is comforting the slaves who are mistreated by their masters by telling such slaves that their bad masters will carry away the wrong they are doing, and that God will not respect their persons. That idea is unchristian. No injured Christian is to harbor the secret thought: “He who wrongs me will get paid by God!” Lightfoot applies this verse to both slave and master: if either does wrong to the other, God will pay the guilty one without partiality. But masters are not mentioned until later.

Paul tells the slave that, if he wrongs his master, the very wrong he has committed he, the slave, will carry away, κομιεῖται, the future tense of κομίζω, “to carry off,” not “receive again” (our versions). The wrong done remains on the slave’s back, and he will carry it to judgment. In that judgment “there is no respect of persons,” no looking at a man’s face, letting him off because it is he. The view that this statement can refer only to a mighty person of high standing who, because of his standing, expects to be let off, is untenable, that just because a slave is only a lowly slave he may expect God to excuse him for shabby service to his earthly master. He is very much mistaken: just as a high standing counts for nothing in the judgment, so also a low standing. The latter is the point for the slave. If Paul had meant: “the one who wrongs you slaves” he would have had to add ὑμᾶς, the pronoun “you.”

Here is Christian completeness (τελειότης, v. 14) for the Christian slave. It, too, has nothing to do with Judaistic decrees and observations.

4:1) You masters, render what is right and equal to your slaves as having come to know that you, too, have a master in heaven. Τὸδίκαιον offers no difficulty, the neuter adjective has taken the place of an abstract noun; the sense is: “Do the right thing by your slaves!” the thing that God will approve when as your master he looks into your conduct.

There is also no difficulty in regard to Paul’s adding a regular abstract noun: “the equality.” The commentators waver in regard to the meaning of this noun. Most of them understand ἰσότης in a modified sense, not as meaning “equality,” but “equity, what is fair and equitable.” They then give the words the general sense: “Treat them decently!” They endeavor to make the two abstract terms match and seek for this modified meaning in secular writers. Meyer is an exception, for he rejects these efforts and prefers “equality,” not the equality of social standing, but that of Christian brotherhood and appeals to Philemon 16 to support this idea; he restricts Paul’s admonition, as to Christian masters, so the Christian slaves, brethren in the congregation: “Treat them like Christian brethren!”

Paul, however, here defines what he means in Eph. 6:9: “Keep doing the same things to them,” i.e., the same things that correspond to the difference in position. “Equality” thus = “the same things”: as you masters want the slaves as slaves to do the right thing by you, do you as their masters do the equal thing by them. Meyer goes too far in one direction, the rest go too far in the other. We shoud not restrict this injunction to the treatment of Christian slaves, it applies to any and all slaves of Christian masters.

The causal participle is the same as that used in 3:24: “because you have come to know that you, too, have a master in heaven.” As you serve this master and want him to treat you, so as masters treat the slaves of whom you ask that they serve you as you serve your master. The whole admonition is an application of the Golden Rule. In Colossians Paul tells the slaves that God does not respect person; in Ephesians he tells this to the masters. It is typical of Paul to vary in just this way. Once more we note that Paul points to what constitutes Christian completeness for Christian owners of slaves, something that is far different from the empty rules of the Judaizers.

C.-K Biblisch-theologisches Woerterbuch der Neutestamentlichen Graezitaet von D. Dr. Hermann Cremer, zehnte, etc., Auflage, herausgegeben von D. Dr. Julius Koegel.

R A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research. 4th edition..

B.-P Griechisch-Deutsches Woerterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments, etc., von D. Walter Bauer, zweite, voellig neugearbeitete Auflage zu Erwin Preuschens Vollstaendigem Griechisch-Deutschen Handwoerterbuch, etc.

B.-D Friedrich Blass’ Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, vierte, voellig neugearbeitete Auflage, besorgt von Albert Debrunner.