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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadVernon McGee Thru The Bible: 51 - COLOSSIANS
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WRITER: Paul (Col_1:1)
DATE: About A.D. 62
CHURCH AT COLOSSE:
Paul had never been to Colosse when he wrote this epistle (Col_2:1). He was in Ephesus for about two years where he had his most fruitful ministry (Act_19:8-19). Colosse was 75 to 100 miles east of Ephesus, and visitors from Colosse had heard Paul and had come to know Christ. Apparently Philemon was one of these. A church came into existence in Colosse (Phm_1:2). Epaphras was the minister of the Colossian church (Col_1:4-8; Col_4:12-13). Paul intended to visit there when he was released from prison (Php_1:22). Paul wrote to this church as though it were his own.
PROBLEM AT COLOSSE:
Colosse, located in southwest Phrygia in Asia Minor, near Laodicea, was beset with oriental mysticism. Gnosticism had evidently intruded with its Greek pantheistic philosophy of the demiurge.
PAUL’S
GNOSTICISM ANSWER
(1) They had an exclusive spirit (were aristocrat- Col_1:28
ic in wisdom).
(2) They held speculative tenets on creation —
that God did not create the universe directly,
but created a creature who in turn created Col_1:15-19;
another creature, until one finally created the Col_2:18
physical universe. Christ was considered a
creature in this long series of creations.
(3) Their ethical practice was asceticism (influ- Col_2:16, Col_2:23
enced by Greek Stoicism) and unrestrained
licentiousness (from Greek Epicureanism). Col_3:5-9
MESSAGE OF COLOSSIANS:
Colossians is the chart and compass that enable the believer to sail between the ever-present Scylla and Charybdis. “Pure Christianity lives between two dangers ever present: the danger that it will evaporate into a philosophy — philosophies of the atonement…and the danger that it will freeze into a form” (Dr. Scofield). Jesus said that He is the water of life. He did not say that He was the ice of life; He did not say that He was the steam of life. We are not told to add something to Christ nor to subtract from Him.
The message of this epistle can best be seen by comparing it with other prison epistles.
see hyperlink
Subject: Ephesians — the body of believers, called the church, of which Christ is the Head
Colossians — the Head of the body who is Christ; the body is only secondary (Col_1:18)
Theme: Philippians — Christian living is the theme and the periphery of the circle where Christ is the center.
Colossians — Christ is the theme and the periphery of the circle where Christian living is the center.
Philippians emphasizes the kenosis — Christ became a Servant (Phi_2:7).
Colossians emphasizes the pleroma — Christ is the fullness of God (Col_2:9).
“Thou, O Christ, art all I want; more than all in Thee I find” (Charles Wesley).
OUTLINE:
I. DOCTRINAL, Chapters 1, 2
In Christ, the fullness (pleroma) of God, we are made full.
A. Introduction, Col_1:1-8
B. Paul’s prayer, Col_1:9-14
C. Person of Christ, Col_1:15-19
D. Objective work of Christ for sinners, Col_1:20-23
E. Subjective work of Christ for saints, Col_1:24-29
F. Christ, the answer to philosophy, Col_2:1-15 (for the HEAD)
G. Christ, the answer to ritual, Col_2:16-23(for the HEART)
II. PRACTICAL, Chapters 3, 4
Christ, the fullness of God, poured out in life through believers.
(Breaking the alabaster box of ointment in the world.)
A. Thoughts and affections of believers are heavenly, Col_3:1-4 (The believer’s heart should be in heaven where his Head is.)
B. Living of believers is holy, Col_3:5 — Col_4:6 (In all relationships — personal, social, marital, parental, capital and labor — the believer should manifest Christ.)
C. Fellowship of believers is hearty, Col_4:7-18 (Roster of faithful workers similar to Romans 16 and Hebrews 11.)
COMMENT:
I. DOCTRINAL, Chapters 1, 2
In Christ, the fullness (pleroma) of God, we are made full.
A. Introduction, Col_1:1-8
Col_1:1 — Paul’s standard opening associates his name with that of Timothy, who may have visited Colosse.
Col_1:2 — He does not mean to differentiate between the saints and the faithful. They are the same people.
Col_1:3 — Paul gives thanks directly to “God…the Father.” This is His redemptive provision (Joh_3:16). Gnosticism did not believe one could go directly to God, but rather through the emanations of God.
Col_1:4-5 — Paul links the trinity of graces for believers:
Faith — past
Love — present
Hope — future
Col_1:6 — “World” is kosmos, meaning the Roman world. Vincent considers this hyperbole. Gospel preaching had already far-reaching results. It reveals the universal character of the gospel. “Fruit” is produced in those who believe.
Col_1:7 — Epaphras may have been the founder of the church, as some suppose.
Col_1:8 — “Love” is the fruit of the Spirit.
B. Paul’s prayer, Col_1:9-14
Col_1:9 — Paul put the Colossians on his prayer list.
“Knowledge” is epignosin, superknowledge. The Gnostics boasted that they had superknowledge. Here Paul confines it to the will of God, which is expressed in the Word of God. It gives “wisdom and spiritual understanding.” “Wisdom,” in all its forms occurs forty times in this epistle.
Col_1:10 — “Worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” means that they would not be obsequious to man. “Increasing in the knowledge of God” — a Christian should not be static but alive and growing in the Word of God.
Col_1:11 — Strength and power come from God and are produced by the Holy Spirit in patience, longsuffering, and joyfulness.
Col_1:12 — God, by His grace, has given us an inheritance with the saints in light.
Col_1:13 — We have been delivered from the kingdom of Satan (Eph_2:2) into the kingdom of “the Son of his love” (ASV). This is the present aspect of the kingdom of God.
Col_1:14 — Forgiveness is always associated with the blood of Christ. God does not arbitrarily or sentimentally forgive sin. “Redemption” is apolutrosin, meaning to set free an enslaved people.
C. Person of Christ, Col_1:15-19
This section on the person of Christ is the answer to all heresy con cerning His person. One of the first heresies was Arianism. Arius of Alexandria said that the Lord Jesus Christ was a creature. The Council of Nicaea, A.D. 325, answered this heresy: “The Son is very man of very man, and very God of very God.” Later Socinus propagated this heresy that Jesus was not God. This is the basis of Unitarianism and some of the cults, including Jehovah’s Witnesses.
There are nine marks of identification of Christ that make Him different and superior:
Col_1:15 — (1) “Image” (eikon; Heb_1:3; Joh_1:18). He could not be the image of God unless He was God.
(2) “The first-born of all creation” (prototokos; Joh_1:14, Joh_1:18; Joh_3:16). God is the everlasting Father; the Son is the everlasting Son. His position in the Trinity is that of Son. “First-born” indicates His priority before all creation. His headship of all creation does not necessarily mean He was born first (Heb_1:6; Rev_1:5; Rom_8:29). In incarnation He is the Son of God in a new sense. The angel’s announcement to Mary was, “…That holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luk_1:35). Christ is the same in substance, equal in power and glory with the Father.
Col_1:16 — (3) “By him were all things created” clears up any question about Christ being the Creator or a creature in Col_1:15 (cp. Joh_1:3; Heb_1:2).
There are two kinds of creation — “visible and invisible.”
There are different gradations of rank in spiritual intelligences:
“thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.”
(4) He not only created all things, they were created for Him.
Col_1:17 — (5) “He is before all things” — in the preincarnate Christ, all fullness dwells. In the incarnate Christ, all fullness dwells.
(6) He holds all things together. He maintains creation. He directs it. “Consist” (sunesteken) is to hold together (cp. Heb_1:3).
Col_1:18 — (7) “He is the head of the body, the church” (cp. Eph_1:22). He is the firstborn from the dead. He is the only One who has been raised in a glorified body (cp. Psa_2:7; Act_13:33; Heb_1:5, Heb_5:5; Rev_1:5).
(8) “That in all things he might have the pre-eminence” — the will of Christ must prevail throughout all of God’s creation.
Col_1:19 — (9) The fullness (pleroma) was at home, the full-fullness. Jesus was 100% God — not 99.44%.
Relationship to the Father, Col_1:15
Relationship to creation, Col_1:16-17
Relationship to the church, Col_1:18-19
Relationship to the cross, Col_1:20
D. Objective work of Christ for sinners, Col_1:20-23
Col_1:20 — Christ “made peace through the blood of his cross” (cp. Rom_5:1). God is not a big policeman waiting around the corner ready to pounce on the sinner. God has His arms outstretched and is saying to the sinner, “Come, and I will give you redemption rest.” Reconciliation is toward man. God is reconciled by the cross of Christ. He is asking man to be reconciled to Him (2Co_5:18-20). “All things” is limited to all things appointed for reconciliation (in just such a way as “the loss of all things” is limited to what things Paul had to lose [Phi_3:8]).
“Things in heaven” indicate that not only must we be made ready for heaven, but heaven must be made ready to receive us. The Lord Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you” (Joh_14:2). By the incarnation, God came down to man; by the blood of Jesus, man is brought up to God. Notice that it does not add, “things under the earth” (cp. Phi_2:10).
Col_1:21 — “Enemies in your mind” reminds us that there is mental alienation from God as well as moral alienation. This explains the fierce antagonism to God on the part of some so-called intellectuals.
Col_1:22 — “Body of his flesh” is an explicit declaration, as Docetic Gnosticism stated that Christ suffered in appearance but not in a real body.
“Unblamable” means without blemish. This was the requirement for a sacrificial animal.
“Unreprovable” means unaccusable; unchargeable. “It is God that justifies.”
Col_1:23 — This is not conditional, based on the future. It is not something that shall be if something else is. Rather, this is the “if” of argument, often used by Paul. It could be translated, “Since ye continue in the faith….”
E. Subjective work of Christ for saints, Col_1:24-29
Col_1:24 — A free translation could be, “Now I, Paul, rejoice in the midst of my sufferings for you, and I am filling up in my flesh that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for His body’s sake, which is the church.” It was necessary to fill up that which was lacking of the suffering of Christ.
(1) There are sufferings of Christ that we cannot share:
(a) Human suffering;
(b) Suffering as the Son of God;
(c) Suffering as the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
(2) There are sufferings of Christ that we can share:
(a) Suffering for righteousness’ sake;
(b) Suffering in the measure we identify ourselves with
Christ for the proclamation of the gospel. (See author’s tape, “The Unfinished Sufferings of Christ.”)
Col_1:25 — “Dispensation” is economy; stewardship.
Col_1:26-27 — “Mystery” is a sacred secret. This looks forward to the day when we shall be like Him (1Jo_3:2). We are in Christ down here at present.
Col_1:28-29 — “Perfect in Christ Jesus” means complete. This was the goal of Paul.
F. Christ, the answer to philosophy, Col_2:1-15 (for the HEAD)
There were five errors that endangered the Colossian church:
(1) Enticing words, Col_2:4-7
(2) Philosophy, Col_2:8-13
(3) Legality, Col_2:14-17
(4) Mysticism, Col_2:18-19
(5) Asceticism, Col_2:20-23
Col_2:1 — “Conflict” is agony — called prayer agony by MacPhail. Laodicea was located on the river Lycos, next to Colosse. It was much more prominent than Colosse. Before 250 B.C. it was called Diosopolis. Here, in 364 A.D., the council to determine the canon of Scripture met (Rev_3:14-22).