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Col_3:15. All these virtues, however, along with the love which binds them together, must have their deep living foundation in the peace of Christ, which reigns in the heart, and their abiding incitement in gratitude towards God for the salvation received in Christ. Hence now the further summons—appended by the simple καί —to the readers, to let that peace reign in their hearts and to be thankful. The εἰρήνη τοῦ Χριστοῦ is the holy satisfaction of mind wrought by Christ through the Spirit, the blessed inner rest, of which the atonement and justification appropriated in faith (Rom_5:1) are the presupposition and condition. See on Php_4:7. Comp. Luther, Bengel, and others, including Flatt, Bähr, Olshausen, Huther, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Ewald, Bleek, Hofmann. To understand the peace of mutual concord (the Greek Fathers, Erasmus, Calvin, Grotius, Calovius, and many others, also Reiche, Comm. Crit. p. 297), is less in accordance with the universality of the connection, which here descends to the deepest ground of the Christian life in the heart; and besides, the concord in question already follows of itself on the virtues recommended. Moreover, there is implied in βραβ . the determining and regulating power, the supreme authority, which the peace of Christ is to have in the Christian heart, which suits most fully the above interpretation alone.
βραβευέτω ] βραβεύειν only found here in the N. T., but as little un-Pauline as καταβραβ . in Col_2:18 (in opposition to Holtzmann); it means primarily: to arrange and conduct the contest (Wis_10:12, and Grimm in loc.); then: to confer the prize of victory, to be βραβεύς , i.e. umpire (Plut. Mor. p. 960 A; Diod. Sic. xiii. 53); finally: to govern[156] generally. See for the last signification especially Dem. 36. 7, 1231. 19; Eur. Hel. 1079; Isocr. Areop. p. 144 B; Polyb. vi. 4. 3, xiii. 1. 5, xxvii. 14. 4, et al.; passages from Josephus in Krebs, and from Philo in Loesner. Considering its very frequent occurrence in the latter sense, and its appropriateness in that sense to ἐν τ . καρδ . ὑμ ., and seeing that any reference to the Messianic βραβεῖον (comp. Col_2:18) is foreign to the context, the majority of modern expositors have rightly interpreted it: the peace of Christ must rule, govern in your hearts. So Luther (“let it be master and keep you in all tribulation”), Castalio, Beza, Bengel, and many others, including Flatt, Bähr, Olshausen, Steiger, Huther, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Dalmer, and Bleek. The conception involves the superintending, arranging, and administering activity, and that in supreme deciding competence (comp. Ewald and Hofmann), as it ought to be exercised by the εἰρήνη τ . Χ . in the heart, quite like the German verfügen [to dispose of]. Bremi says aptly, ad Dem. Ol. p. 179, Goth.: it is not simply equivalent to διοικεῖν , “sed pleno jure et ex arbitrio διοικεῖν .” Chrysostom and his followers have retained the meaning: to confer the prize of victory, but with ideas introduced to which nothing in the text points. Theophylact: ὑβρίσθημεν πολλάκις ὑπό τινος · ἀγωνίζονται παρʼ ἡμῖν λογισμοὶ δύο , ὁ μὲν εἰς ἄμυναν κινῶν , ὁ δὲ εἰς μακροθυμίαν . Ἐὰν ἡ εἰρήνη τ . Θεοῦ στῇ ἐν ἡμῖν , ὥσπερ τις βραβευτὴς δίκαιος , τουτέστι κριτὴς καὶ ἀγωνοθέτης , καὶ δῷ τὸ βραβεῖον τῆς νίκης τῷ κελεύοντι μακροθυμεῖν , παύσεται ὁ ἀνταγωνιστής . Comp. also Erasmus, Vatablus, and Calvin, who, however, explain it erroneously: palmam ferat. Grotius: “dijudicet, nempe si quid est inter vos controversum.” So also, substantially, Hammond, Kypke, and others; similarly, Melanchthon: “gubernet omnia certamina.” Comp. βραβεύειν ἔριν (Plut. Romans 9) and the like. See Dorville, ad Charit. p. 445. But the context points to deeper matters than disputes, upon which the peace of Christ in the heart is to decide.
εἰς ἣν κ . ἐκλ . κ . τ . λ .] argumentative, supporting the exhortation just uttered; for which ye also ( καί expressing the corresponding relation) were called, etc.; εἰς ἥν , in behalf of which, i.e. to possess which peace, is not the final aim of the calling, which is rather participation in the Messianic kingdom, but a mediate aim. Comp. 1Pe_2:21.
ἐν ἑνὶ σώματι ] not instead of εἰς ἓν σῶμα (Grotius, Flatt, and many others); nor yet: “as growing to be members of a single body” (Hofmann, gratuitously importing), but (comp. Ellicott and Bleek) as the result of ἐκλήθητε , announcing the relation of fellowship, into which the individuals are translated through their calling, and in which they now find themselves continuously. This abiding condition was the predominant conception; hence the pregnancy of the expression (Kühner, II. 1, p. 469); so that ye are in one body, namely, as its members. The element of unity, added with emphasis, and that quite in Pauline form (Rom_12:5; 1Co_10:17; in opposition to Holtzmann), stands in appropriate reference to the entire requirement. To have become by the calling one body with those who share in that calling, and yet not to let the holy moral disposition, for the sake of which we are called, be the common ruling power of life—what a contradiction! In that case there would be wanting to the ἓν σῶμα the ἓν πνεῦμα accordant with the calling (Eph_4:4; 1Co_12:13).
The mention of this calling—the great blessing which makes everything, that is at variance with what has hitherto been demanded (Col_3:12 ff.), appear as ingratitude towards God—induces the apostle to add still further the highest motive of all for every Christian virtue (comp. Col_2:7, Col_1:12): κ . εὐχάριστοι γίνεσθε : and become ye thankful (comp. on Eph_4:32); in which the γίνεσθε (not equivalent to ἐστέ ) requires the constant striving after this exalted aim as something not yet attained; comp. e.g. Joh_15:8. It was nothing but a misconception of that inner connection and of this significance of γίνεσθε , which led to the taking εὐχάρ . as amabiles, friendly, and the like (comp. Eph_4:32; Pro_11:15). So Jerome, Erasmus (not in the Paraphr.), Calvin, Vatablus, Beza, (benefici), Cornelius a Lapide, Wolf, Krebs, and many others, including Bähr, Steiger, Olshausen, and Reiche. The linguistic use of εὐχάριστος in this sense in the classical writers is well known (Xen. Cyr. ii. 2. 1, Oec. v. 10), but equally so is also its use in the sense of thankful (Xen. Cyr. viii. 3. 49; Herodian, ii. 3. 14; Diod. Sic. xviii. 28); and the N. T., in which, moreover, the adjective is nowhere else found, has, like the Apocrypha, εὐχαριστεῖν and εὐχαριστία only in the latter signification (comp. Col_3:17), the reference of which in our passage to God after εἰς ἣν κ . ἐκλήθ . (it is God who calls) is self-evident, but not (in opposition to Grotius and Calovius) the mutua gratitudo. The ascription of the words κ . εὐχάρ . γίν . to the interpolator, who is also supposed to have inserted ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ in Col_4:2 (Holtzmann), is destitute of ground either in the language or in the matter of the passage. It is not at all easy to see why εὐχάριστος should be “as un-Pauline as εὔσπλαγχνος in Eph_4:32.”
[156] The Vulgate incorrectly renders: exultet. So also the Gothic.