Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Colossians 1:24 - 1:24
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Now I rejoice (nun chairomen). This is not a new note for Paul. See him in jail in Philippi (Act 16:25) and in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33; Rom 5:3; Phi 2:18.
Fill up on my part (antanaplērō). Very rare double compound verb (here only in N.T.) to fill (plēroō) up (ana), in turn (anti). It is now Paul’s “turn” at the bat, to use a baseball figure. Christ had his “turn,” the grandest of all and suffered for us all in a sense not true of any one else. It is the idea of balance or correspondence in anti as seen in Demosthenes’s use of this verb (De Symm., p. 282), “the poor balancing the rich.” And yet Christ did not cause suffering to cease. There is plenty left for Paul and for each of us in his time.
That which is lacking (ta husterēmata). “The left-overs,” so to speak. Late word from hustereō, to come behind, to be left, to fail. See Luk 21:4; 1Th 3:10; 2Co 8:14; 2Co 9:12.
For his body’s sake (huper tou sōmatos autou). As Paul showed in his exultation in suffering in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33, though not in the same sense in which Christ suffered and died for us as Redeemer. Paul attaches no atoning value whatever to his own sufferings for the church (see also Col 1:18).