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Col_3:17. The apostle having announced in Col_3:16 the first way in which the abundant indwelling of the word of Christ must manifest itself by ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ διδάσκοντες … πνευματικοῖς , and having set forth as the second the ἐν τῇ χάριτι ᾄδοντες κ . τ . λ ., now adds the third, and that, indeed, as one embracing the entire conduct of life; the καί , and, attaches it to the two participial clauses in Col_3:16, not, however, introducing another participial mode of expression conformed to the foregoing, but leading over, through the verb to be supplied, into the direct form of discourse: And whatsoever ye do by word or by work, do all in the name of Jesus. The πᾶν ὅ , τι ἂν ποιῆτε … ἔργῳ is the absolute nominative, placed at the beginning with rhetorical emphasis, and syntactically independent. See Kühner, II. 1, p. 42; Winer, p. 534 [E. T. 7I8].
ἐν λόγῳ ἢ ἐν ἔργῳ ] Comp. Aesch. Prom. 659: τί χρὴ δρῶντʼ ἢ λέγοντα δαίμοσιν πράσσειν φίλα . See Pflugk, ad Eur. Hec. 373: “Dictis factisque omnis continetur actio.” For instances of λόγος and ἔργον associated in that order and conversely, see Bornemann, ad Xen. Mem. ii. 3. 6; Lobeck, Paral, p. 64 f.
πάντα ] again emphatically prefixed, not, however, taking up again the previous πᾶν , but rather: in the case of everything which is done by word or deed, all is to take place in the name of Jesus;[163] no element of the doing is to be out of this sphere! The imperative ποιεῖτε is to be supplied from the context. Comp. on Eph_5:21.
ἐν ὀνόμ .] Not: with invocation of (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Melanchthon, and others), but: so that the name is the holy moral element, in which the action proceeds, inasmuch, namely, as this name, as the sum of the faith which moulds the new life, fills the consciousness, and gives to the action its specific Christian quality and consecration. Ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ would not be substantially different. Comp. on Eph_5:20; Php_2:10; Joh_14:13. “Illum sapiat, illum sonet, illum spiret omnis vestra vita,” Erasmus. The ideal character of the requirement is misapprehended, when, with Cornelius a Lapide, it is lowered to a mere consilium. See, on the contrary, Calovius.
εὐχαρ . τῷ Θεῷ κ . τ . λ .] accompanying definition: whilst ye at the same time give thanks, etc. Comp. ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ in Col_2:7, Col_4:2, Col_1:12; Php_4:6. In the apostle’s view, there belongs essentially to the devoutness of Christian life the self-expressing piety of thankfulness for all Christian bliss, in the consciousness, assurance, and experience of which one does everything in the name of Jesus. Since εὐχαρ . denotes thanksgiving, Grotius ought not to have taken the participle in a declaratory sense (“quid sit in nomine Christi omnia facere et loqui”); a misinterpretation, which Hofmann rightly rejects, but substitutes another explanation which neglects the verbal import of εὐχαριστεῖν : namely, that Paul declares the doing here required to be a thanksgiving, etc., doing, which is practical thanks. Εὐχαριστεῖν is never in the N. T. equivalent to χάριν ἀποδοῦναι , gratias referre.
πατρί ] Father of Jesus.
διʼ αὐτοῦ ] For Jesus, as the personal historical mediator of Messianic bliss through the work of atonement, is therewith for the Christian consciousness the mediator of thanksgiving; He it is, through whose benefit the Christian can and does give thanks. Comp. Rom_1:8; Rom_7:25, al. Hence in Eph_5:20 : ἐν ὀνόματι κ . τ . λ . Both the thought and expression were so habitually in use and belonged so essentially to the circumstances of the case, that the hypothesis of a contrast to the mediation of angels (Theodoret, Bengel, and many others, including Bähr) is unfounded, more especially seeing that the entire context has no polemical reference.
[163] Paul, as is well known, is fond of placing close beside each other different forms of πᾶς with different references. See Wilke, Rhetor, p. 381; comp. also on Php_4:12.