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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Colossians 1:25 - 1:25
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25. ἦς ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ διάκονος. He omits the Παῦλος of Col 1:23 because he has no longer need to suggest the marvellousness of the fact of his own conversion, but he retains the ἐγώ because he has not yet quite left the thought of the contrast in Col 1:24 between himself and Christ. A less probable reason for the insertion of ἐγώ is that by it St Paul begins to point out his distinction from others in his ministry, viz. to preach to the Gentiles.
κατά, i.e. his ministry was “conducted in pursuance of, after the requirements and conditions of” (Alf.).
τὴν οἰκονομίαν τοῦ θεοῦ, “the dispensation of God.” On οἰκονομία see especially Lightfoot’s full note on Eph 1:10 bringing out the various meanings of the word, Classical, Biblical, and Patristic.
Here it is sufficient to say that (a) Aristotle uses it of the administration of the State regarded as a great house: Pol. iii. 14, p. 1285, ὥσπερ ἡ οἰκονομικὴ βασιλεία τις οἰκίας ἐστίν, οὕτως ἡ βασιλεία πόλεως καὶ ἔθνους ἑνὸς ἢ πλειόνων οἰκονομία; and Polybius, vi. 12. 5, of military government.
(b) The idea of God as the οἰκοδεσπότης is common in the N.T. (e.g. Mat 13:27), with the Church as His οἷκος (1Ti 3:15), believers as His οἰκεῖοι (Eph 2:19), ministers His οἰκόνομοι (1Co 4:1).
(c) οἰκονομία itself has two meanings in the N.T.;
(α) the mode of administering, as in Eph 1:10,
(β) the office of an administrator, so Eph 3:2 and here; compare also Isa 22:19; Isa 22:21.
τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι, “which was given me,” at my conversion, Act 9:15.
εἰς ὑμᾶς, certainly with τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι, see Eph 3:2; cf. also Rom 15:16. εἰς, i.e. to be employed in your direction.
By ὑμᾶς we must understand specifically the Colossians. They are the concrete example of the direction generally.
πληρῶσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ. It will be more convenient to consider the meaning of τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ first and then to return to πληρῶσαι.
The analogy of the common phrase in the Prophets, “the word of the Lord,” determines the force of the genitive here as subjective, i.e. it is not “the word about God” but “the word given by God.” But whereas in the O.T. it is often the specific message given at some definite time to a particular prophet, this meaning does not seem to occur in the N.T. Otherwise we might understand St Paul here to say that he was intended to accomplish the specific message (Act 26:16-18) delivered to him, which he further unfolds in the next verse. N.T. usage, however, points to a wider interpretation—God’s message in Christ, the Gospel as such. So often, e.g. Act 8:14; Act 18:11; 1Co 14:36; Heb 13:7. Cf. Swete on Rev 19:13.
It is thus in this passage a synonym of εὐαγγέλιον but regards the good news in its relation not to men but to God; see Bernard, Additional note on 1Ti 4:5 in this series. Cf. ὁ λόγ. τοῦ χρ. Col 3:16.
πληρῶσαι, explanatory. The dispensation given to him was to “fulfil the word of God,” i.e. to fill up the full measure of the Gospel, both in its reception by the Gentiles (Col 1:27 a) and in the moral and spiritual completion of every believer (Col 1:28). He toils and contends for nothing less (Col 1:29).