Commentary on Colossians 0.1–1.29

Prologue. False apostles were striving to overturn the Colossians, so that after the preaching of Epaphras or Archippus they might ensnare the simplicity of their minds with philosophical disputations: that they should not despise the principles of the elements, by which human life is supposedly governed. Therefore the Apostle exhorts them by letter and admonishes them not to think that there is any hope in anyone besides Christ, and so be deceived. Chapter one.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to those who are at Colossae, holy and faithful brothers in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He writes the heading of the letter to them in his usual way, in which he goes on to address his letter to the holy and faithful brothers, for whom he wishes that God's grace may remain through Christ.

“We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have toward all the saints, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as also in the whole world.” Since God has held them worthy to entrust his Son to them, he gives him thanks in his prayers. Then he gives thanks because of the love they had toward the saints, trusting that for this there is a firm hope with God, by which he will reward those who believe in him and love one another, Christ being the author, whose name has reached all nations, so that they may be multiplied in faith in him.

“Is bearing fruit and growing, as also among you, from the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you, who also made known to us your love in the spirit.” He goes on with eager speech to say that they too are growing and bearing life-giving fruit, as an example to the other nations; so that, from the fact that they have received God's grace, they may advance both in number and in work, adding to their faith those who would become their brothers in Christ. For by the example of their good works many were drawn, Epaphras being witness for them, who ministered to them the grace of Christ in the Apostle's stead, which they at once drank in as a spiritual drink in the love of the Lord, which is not in the flesh but in the spirit. “Therefore we too, from the day we heard, do not cease praying and asking for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthily of him, to every good pleasure, in every good work.” The Apostle, hearing of their devoted and ready will toward the faith of Christ, prays for them that, having more fully recognized God's will, they may fulfil with reasonable works the devotion they had learned on hearing the faith of Christ; lest so faithful a dedication of mind and strength of faith, by doing something unadvisedly and unskilfully, should lose the fruit of its labour. For that is gladly accepted which is done with a devoted mind, and prudently.

“Bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, gaining strength in all power according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and long-suffering, with joy giving thanks to God and the Father, who has called you into the share of the lot of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” He wants the growth of their works to come with knowledge, so that they may not be ignorant of the hope of their faith; for they are then firm and steadfast if they attend to what has been promised for faith, and how great is the power of the glory of God's majesty in patience; so that with long waiting he bears with the human race, which in its irreverence not only neglects the Creator but persecutes those who love him; so that they too may be likewise patient, bearing the reproaches and curses of unbelievers, or affliction if it is inflicted, awaiting God's judgment and not doubting it, but rather rejoicing in the promised life with thanksgiving to God, who deigned to call and bring the gentiles into the promise of the Jews, which is eternal light, that is, eternal life, everlasting truth. For, freed from the condition of darkness, that is, rescued from the underworld, in which we were held by the devil both by our own offence and by that of Adam, who is the father of all who sin, we have been transferred through faith into the heavenly kingdom of the Son of God; so that God might show us with what love he loves us, when, lifting us from the depth of Tartarus, he brought us into heaven with his true Son. For now all believers who are devoted with steadfast mind, departing from the world, are brought into heaven, an angel of the Father's right hand leading them, which was not granted before death was conquered.

“In whom we have redemption and the remission of sins.” Into the kingdom of this his Son God has transferred us, through whom he redeemed and set us free; for remission of sins makes people free, so that, freed from debts, they cannot be held liable. For without faith in Christ there is no going out from the underworld, because one bound by sins cannot leave the gates of Tartarus. “Who is the image of the invisible God.” The image of the invisible God cannot be visible, otherwise it is not an image; for what is invisible cannot be painted, nor can a visible one see the invisible; for what is seen is either a body, or a figure, or some formed substance that the sight of the eyes can take in. All this, however, is body; but God, who is foreign to all these, how can he have a visible image? But it is said so, that the Son may be understood to be such as the Father is; so that, because he is from him and differs from him in nothing in the divinity of nature, he may be called his image and form, lest another God be believed by the faithless, although this is contained in the very name; for this is why he is called the true Son of God, so that he may be believed to be from him. But because of bad understanding this too was added, that he be called his image; so that when he appears, even in human form, or indeed in fire, as to Moses (Exod 3:2), it may be understood that it is not the Father himself but the Son; and through his being called his image, he may be believed to differ from him in nothing. Hence he says to Philip: “Philip, whoever sees me sees the Father also. How do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:9–10). This is the unity and consubstantiality of the Father and the Son: that they are in each other, so that one who sees the Son sees the Father too. Now let us see how the Son was seen, so that from this we may understand by what reason Philip, seeing the Son, sees the Father too. Certainly they saw the Son by understanding his divine works, not with fleshly eyes. What the Son worked he said were the Father's, to show the unity of power. In the same way he was seen by Jacob too, whence he received the name Israel, that is, a man seeing God (Gen 32:28–30). For this reason, then, he is called the image of the invisible God: so that he might be understood to be the one who was seen as God through understanding; but that the Father never appeared in any way, as it is said in the gospel: “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18).

“The firstborn of all creation.” He testifies that the Son was begotten before all creation, not created, so as to distinguish his birth from the making of creation; and to make this wholly clear he added: “For in him were founded all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers; all things were founded through him and in him.” He signifies Christ as magnificent and glorious not only in this, that he was born before all things were made, but he also says that in him all things were founded, that is, so that the power of all things may be believed to be in him, and therefore to have gone forth, since all things are made through him; and this is to be the head of the whole creation, because they began to be so as to exist through him. And the things made by him are said to be made through him for this reason, that he was born to make the creation; this is to have made in him and through him. For his birth profited not himself but us, because he who was in these things had no need to be born. How is he the only Son of God the Father, how does he himself know the things that are unbegotten of God the Father? For he was in God, who proceeded from God, so that God might be one; and so it comes about that there is neither diminution of the Father nor increase of the Son when he is born. And to hand on more plainly what and how great is the Son's power, he shows the things that are through him, namely Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers; so that accordingly nothing whatever may be believed to be less in him than in the Father. “And he is before all.” He is before all because he alone was born of God the Father, of the unbegotten substance of God. But these things subsisted by his power, which he has from the Father by generation; not so that they have communion of substance with him, but they began from nothing by the will of God the Father, the Son acting. “And all things hold together in him.” They hold together in him because without him they are nothing; for unless they are subject to him, gone astray by error, they become liable as it were to perdition. “And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he himself may hold the first place.” Christ is the head of the church, provided all, heavenly and earthly, think the same thing, so as to be the church, that is, of one faith; if not, cut off from the head of the whole body, that is, separated from their Creator, they rave with a kind of madness and vanity. “Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he himself may hold the first place.” Since all things are through him, through him they had to be re-formed, having become fallen through a kind of negligence; lest it be an injury to him if his work had been restored through another; so that as he was born before all, so again he might be first before all from the resurrection of the dead, former life restored; for he was born of God before all things to create all things that were not. And again, having taken flesh, he was born of a virgin, to abolish the sin that had entered the world through the virgin Eve. Born, then, and having died, he rose again, so as to recreate afterwards what he had first made, because through error they had become as it were dead; so that in all life he may always be first and chief.

“For in him it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell.” The fulness is in him and remains, because he can always do all things, so that nothing is excepted that cannot be granted through him: both to make, and to re-form, and to raise up what had fallen, and to give life to the dead. Hence he says: “As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26); and: “As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wills. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:21–22). What is so just as that he should give him judgment over the things that he made through him, so that all the fulness of divinity might dwell in him, through what we said, that he has all power in himself: that is, that he is perfect God; for one who does not have all these is not God.

“And through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, whether the things that are in heaven or the things that are on earth.” This is what he mentioned above: that, so as to restore through him all the things he had made, since through some error they had already begun to be at variance with one another and with their author (for there is still error in the fleshly heavens), he humbled him by making him incarnate, so that, made man, he might show and teach how the things that are in the firmament and on earth could be reconciled to the Creator. And to bring this to completion, he allowed himself to be killed for human beings, so that those whom he had taught the higher things, when they leave here, might not be held by the second death; so that his teaching might have the fruit of the first institution, and all things made through him might live in him as in their author, as Peter confesses in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 3:15).

“And you, once estranged and enemies of his counsels in wicked works, but now reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, must present yourselves holy and spotless and blameless in his sight.” He recalls what a gift of God it is toward the gentiles, to show them to be debtors, and greatly so, in thanksgiving to God; who, when they were enemies of his counsels, by which he decided to visit the human race through his servant Moses, whose teaching and authority they did not receive, being devoted to their idols, indeed to their wicked works (for they worshipped their own works which they had made), yet the mercy and providence of God sought them out, so that they might obtain God's grace freely, returning to him with a clean conscience; so that in the day of judgment, nothing of the old error being found in them, they might be incorporated into their Creator, who, to benefit the human race, became incarnate as man, so as to conquer death in his flesh.

“If indeed you continue in the faith, founded, stable and immovable from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached in all the creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, have been made a minister; who now rejoice in sufferings for you, and fill up what is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the church.” He declares that he exults in the tribulations he suffered, because he sees his progress in the faith of believers. For tribulation is not empty when it wins for life the one for whom one suffers. He says that these sufferings are inflicted on Christ, whose teaching they certainly persecute; so as both to weigh down the faithless with the belief of their impiety and to preach to the faithful the love of God, whose Son even now suffers injuries for us. Now, then, he wants it understood why he writes to them, when he says, “If indeed you continue in the faith, founded”: so that they might know that Christ's passion would profit them only if they remained in the faith they had received. For this is why from the beginning he declared how great and how infinite is the omnipotence of Christ's greatness: to teach that hope is to be placed in him alone; because all things are his, and because nothing can live without him, neither in heaven nor on earth. For he is before all, and all things hold together in him, because in all things he holds the first place; so that if anyone thinks he ought to be devoted to any of the elements or angels or Powers, he should know that he errs. For this one is the one Son of God, head of all principality and beginning, whose gospel has been preached in the whole world, beginning from Moses, who said to the Jews: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from your brothers, like me. Him you shall hear; for whoever does not hear that prophet will be destroyed from the people” (Deut 18:15–19). Hence the Lord says to the Jews: “For Moses wrote of me” (John 5:46). So this one alone is to be heard and worshipped, and no one is to be compared with him; for whoever holds the head has the rest subject to him. For one who humbles himself to the subordinate errs entirely; because, not holding the head, he is a trunk, though from the head the whole body is held together for life.

“Of which I have been made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which was given me for you, to fulfil the word of God in the mystery that was hidden from the ages of ages and from the generations.” He speaks with confidence of having been made by God through Christ a minister of the gospel among the gentiles, so that the mystery begun by the Lord, which was unknown from the ages, might be fulfilled through a fit and effective servant.

“But now it has been declared to his saints, to whom God willed to show what are the riches of the majesty of God's mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we proclaim.” He asserts that the mystery that was hidden from the ages has now been revealed, that is, shown in the time of the apostles: that the gentiles too were to be admitted to the faith of Christ, who had been promised to the Jews, without circumcision of the flesh. For previously, before the preaching of faith, gentiles were commanded to be circumcised if they wished to approach the Law; but now by God's mercy they have been ordered to be received into faith just as they are. This the Jews thought unworthy: that Christ, in whom was the hope of the Jews, should make the gentiles too sharers of his glory.

“Admonishing every man and teaching in all wisdom, so that we may present every man perfect in Christ; for which I labour, striving according to his working, which works in me in power.” He says that this is true wisdom, which is in the Lord's discipline, when Christ is recognized. The Apostle testifies that he does this himself with great care, so that, instructing every man in this wisdom, he may present him complete to God in the understanding of Christ, so that he may grasp the mystery of his birth from God and his birth from Mary, and of his whole work in heavenly and earthly things. He says that he has a struggle in this matter against the faithless, with the signs of mighty works helping, so that by these unbelief may be overcome and suppressed. For whoever has dared to contradict words with a certain subtlety of diabolical cunning must, corrected by shame, yield to power.