God knows that the greatest need that the woman has is to know that she is loved, that she is loved supremely. The apostle could not but dread the slide on which the Colossians found themselves; and the more so as they themselves had no fears, but on the contrary thought highly of that which had attracted their minds. Thus it is that He rises into a new condition, leaving behind that which had fallen under vanity or death through its sinning chief, the first Adam. Can we do it, asking for his help?" If you look at the saints individually, He is the seal and the earnest. And now the apostle would recall them: "Walk in him, rooted and built up in him." Such a desire, says Paul, is idolatry. But she says, "It would be simple if he really loved me, liked Jesus loved the church." We must walk the more closely with God in all the instances of evangelical obedience. "Oh, my little sweet heart. Is it all we want to draw from Him? They have undoubtedly taught that which is consistent with it and even supposes it. There could be no fellowship in the ancient world between a slave and a free man. The uncultured and the cultured came together in the Christian Church. Let us look briefly at each of these three spheres of human relationships. A father's stroke that chastises the erring is a mercy. There is malice. "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. He does not say "against you," because, in truth, the Colossian saints had never been under the law and its ordinances; they had been Gentiles. But the apostle took every pains to, show how great was the love of Epaphras for them; for his faithful spirit knew some little of that which the apostle knew well, that the more abundantly he loved, the less he was loved. Hence it runs: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven." Hence, as the apostle Paul was one on whom God set particular honour in developing the mystery, and communicating it in inspired words also, so he was more than any other called to suffer the consequences in this present evil world. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord. He calls him Christ our life. III. But this is not at all the divine way of dealing with the Christian. We have not to imagine a reason, for the Spirit of God has given His own, and this will be found to set aside all others. Sorrowful circumstances may, alas! The wife is to submit to the husband. The supreme example was the Roman Patria Potestas, the law of the father's power. New Testament Individual Books. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. "Christ is all, and in all.". Bear with one another, and, if anyone has a ground of complaint against someone else, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive each other. In this we have what the Spirit occupies Himself with as sent down from heaven. Long ago Aristotle had defined praotes as the happy mean between too much and too little anger. THE MUTUAL OBLIGATION ( Colossians 3:18-25 ; Colossians 4:1 continued). Lesson 1: In Christ, In Flagstaff (Colossians 1:1-2) Lesson 2: Authentic Christianity (Colossians 1:3-8) Lesson 3: What Spiritual Growth Looks Like (Colossians 1:9-12) Lesson 4: Forgiven by God! It is of this Christ is the objective centre and Head. Alas! Yes, Christ is in all, and Christ is all. I may be perfectly certain, whatever may be my sorrow or travail of spirit about anything, Christ feels far more deeply (yea, infinitely deeper than any other) those that may excite any of us. Any marriage in which everything is done for the convenience of one of the partners and where the other exists simply to gratify the needs and desires of the first, is not a Christian marriage. The pursuit of tradition or of philosophy, as a graft on Christianity, continually tends to bring in that which poisons the springs of truth, and grace is always annulled by either. The Holy Spirit brings in that which completely judges and sets aside all such speculations. "Wherefore," says he, "if ye be dead with Christ "which is one grand part of his subject "if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living [or alive] in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. In baptism the Christian dies and rises again. What is there not there to draw our hearts to it? Let us take the cases one by one and look at them in the light of this new principle. The man who has praotes ( G4236) is the man who is so self-controlled, because he is God-controlled, that he is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. In fact there was not even the thought of striving to be dead before the death of Christ came; and when He died, the Spirit in due time revealed not alone that He died for us, but that we died in Him. One of the best tests of any action is: "Can we do it, calling upon the name of Jesus? That we are dead; that is, to present things, and as our portion. Thus the mystery includes, first, Christ as Head above, we though here being united by the Holy Ghost to Him glorified. I. This is the only allusion to the Spirit, as far as I remember, in the epistle. And as if that were not precise enough, it is added, "Set your affection on things above." As we have reason to love him whom we have not seen (1 Peter 1:8), so we may take the comfort of a happiness out of sight, and reserved in heaven for us. This is the doctrine of the epistle to the Ephesians. To the virtues and the graces Paul adds one more--what he calls the perfect bond of love. Also the reason seems obvious. An *apostle is a person whom God sends to lead Christians. These two are tied together. Besides, Christ is the first-born of all creation. The Rheims version translates it benignity. We don't want them to goof off and get mediocre grades in school. His was by no means a love inactive or limited. 3:5-9a So, then, put to death these parts of you which are earthly-- fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, the desire to get more than you ought--for this is idol worship; and because of these things the wrath of God comes upon those who are disobedient. Thus baptism is not limited to signifying death. Colossians 3:2 Vincent's Word Studies Set your affection () Lit., be minded, think. (iv) It destroyed the barrier between class and class. The master must remember that he too has a Master--Christ in heaven. Ah! Here the candy, ha, ha, ha, ha." These things at first sight appear far apart, but they are not so in result. There is gentleness (praotes, G4236) . 224-26.]. Love is the binding power which holds the whole Christian body together. Second, on the human side, it is based on the belief that all men are the sons of God; and there is no room for arrogance when we are living among men and women who are all of royal lineage. Who can be so deeply concerned as the Christian? "You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind," says he (for the full truth is brought before them as to their condition), "enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death." First the apostle brings in all things as a whole, the universal creaturehood, earthly and heavenly; thus giving us an adequate notion of the perfect triumph of God at the time when it seemed as if Satan had completely succeeded through man against the counsels of God. The old advice still stands which says that before we repeat anything about anyone we should ask three questions: "Is it true? Paul moves on to give his list of the great graces with which the Colossians must clothe themselves. Am I to forget His glory in the presence of God? Nevertheless, he lets the Colossians know what he went through for their sakes and other saints who were before his heart, even though unknown in the flesh. 2.Not the things that are on earth. in the singularly energetic language of the Spirit of God here called the members of the man. Christ, says he, calls us upwards to himself, while these draw us downwards. For this is the winding-up and exposition of what he had lately touched upon as to the abolition of ceremonies through the death of Christ. This new creation is a continual renewal. II. In Christ the saint is above them, and leaves them to God without anxiety or envy. God has been pleased to call the church a body; and so in truth it is. The answer is important, for in it there is the whole Christian doctrine of work. No right-minded man, as such, could take for granted that others would care to know about his affairs any more than be theirs, unless indeed in case of a relation, or a friend, or a public and extraordinary personage. Verse 1 Paul described himself as an *apostle of Christ Jesus. And we do recognize that the highest authority in our life is God. It matters little how well taught the saint may be, nor how he may know the moral beauty and the unfailing wisdom of the word, if positive fruit be not increased: if the spirit and power of worship abound not, there is something altogether short, or wrong. But there is always a problem in the relationship of parent and child. (2.) (i) We have seen repeatedly that the early Christians regarded baptism as a dying and a rising again. Such is His relationship to the church. Put on the new self, which is ever freshly renewed until it reaches fullness of knowledge, in the likeness of its creator. This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. He is in effect saying that his Christianity must make him a better and more efficient slave. Not only did he preach the one and teach the other (which the others no doubt did too), but he has committed to inspired writings the gospel as none other did; and he has, alone of all, brought out the church in the fullest way. There was no hindrance to the flow of the Spirit in unfolding the truth. And so it is. The treatment of the idiot and the simple-minded was unfeeling. And you should be seeking those things which are above where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Christian speech must be kind and pure and honest to all men and in all places. As to the Jewish rites and feasts that some were endeavouring to re-impose, take for an instance the Sabbath, which is the stronger, because it was from the beginning of the first man, yet unfallen, and of course long before the Jewish people. Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. Lit., be minded, think. When a man becomes a Christian, there ought to be a complete change in his personality. Trench calls this a lovely word for a lovely quality. There is no reference to a question of evil within, but of arriving at maturity in Christ, instead of babes, resting merely in forgiveness. The new thing about personal relationships in Christianity is that Jesus Christ is introduced into them all. There is no feature of the present day more remarkable than the success with which Satan is massing as it were, his forces, bringing together at the very same point, where they are wanted, these two parties; that is to say, the heavier arms of human tradition, and the lighter ones of man's philosophy. Now that he has come, the shadows are of no further interest. He who does wrong will be paid back for the wrong that he has done, and there is no respect of persons. He must be heavenly-minded here on earth and so help to make earth like heaven." It was not so unmingled an address as where he views them simply as they were in Christ. And this is the truth that is so offensive to flesh in every form. We must never allow one truth to be either shut out or enfeebled by another; but then we need also to remember that there are, and have always been, those that, having begun seemingly well, have ended by becoming the enemies of Christ and the church. Pleonexia is one of the ugliest of sins but while it is quite clear what it means, it is by no means so easy to find a single word to translate it. It is not too much to say that everything that has been done for the aged, the sick, the weak in body and in mind, the animal, the child, the woman has been done under the inspiration of Christianity. There are few here, it is to be supposed, who are not already aware that to put in "the Father" (as is done in the Authorized Version in italics) is to take away from the Son without warrant and dangerously. I have been crucified with Christ, thus I am dead to the flesh and to the things of the flesh and to the life of the flesh; I should not be living after the flesh. Christianity brought mercy into this world. . That may be putting bread on the table, but your life really is bound up in Jesus Christ. Paul returned to his thought about the believers union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection (Colossians 2:9-15). Hence the spending of heart and thought that "every man" might be thus built up in the truth, and especially the heavenly truth of Christ, which was entrusted to his stewardship and ministry, "warning, every man and teaching every man, that we may present every man full grown in Christ." They that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Bible study tool. This, I am sure, should not be weakened, brethren. If a man does not own Him to be Lord, he is nothing whatever; but one may bow to Him as Lord, and yet be painfully insensible to the higher glory of His person, and to the depths of His grace. In a man it would be vain and curious: it is blessed in a Christian. In this context it is much more likely that what is forbidden is slanderous talk against one's fellow-men. And if we are dead to the earth, and have renounced it as our happiness, it is absurd for us to set our affections upon it, and seek it. The workman must do everything as if he was doing it for Christ. But is this all? It was not so in the Ephesian epistle, where one of the richest developments of divine truth precedes any particular allusion to the saints in that city. When the apostle was told to wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord, blood does not seem to have been meant, but water. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." He will, for instance, set giving above getting, serving above ruling, forgiving above avenging. He is the Head of the body one of the chief topics of this epistle. Knowledge and faith make a soul rich. While He lived, this work was wholly unaccomplished. He can no longer be concerned with the trivial passing things of earth; he must be totally concerned with the eternal verities of heaven. This change was effected by Christianity." And as if this were not enough, we are farther told that He is before all things, and by ( ) Him all things consist. But here writes the lowly-minded apostle, in the full assurance that, though he had never seen them, or they him, it would be real and mutual gratification to know about one another from him who went between them. and none the less because they name the name of the Lord. The first two chapters present Christ's person and work and the last two His peace and presence. Three positional things are said in Colossians 3:1 about this eternal Son of God and Christ (Messiah) who entered history, died, and rose: (1) He is above: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is.". There is no proof of the sort. 1. But, even in making your living, if you will do things heartily as unto the Lord, it will open up many opportunities for you to witness. How is it?" They had done with Him, and, as far as will was concerned, they had done with Him for ever. We may be content to be hidden while He is hidden; but He is not always to be out of sight. There might be a word of God which was not in the same way the word of Christ. But the cleansing as well as expiation is by the death of Christ out of whose side flowed both. The Christian will have all the desires of the new man gratified. Nor is continuance in prayer all; but vigilant watch in the same, which does not let slip the just occasion for supplication; and as all things were to be done with thanksgiving, so prayer also, which would assuredly not forget the need of those in the forefront of the spiritual warfare and toil of love. This remains for the day of Christ's glory, and will fill a most important part in the purposes of God. Nowadays to mortify the flesh means rather to practise ascetic discipline and self-denial. Hence we find the glorious future display referred to here: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear;" for we have both "ye are dead," and "your life is hid with Christ in God." Neither the Gnostics nor any other unbelievers can understand this life, because the life is in Christ and therefore is hidden from their view. The greatest scholar in the world and the simplest son of toil can sit in perfect fellowship in the Church of Christ. And what a deliverance from self to see Christ in them! There is no scale of angelic beings forming a ladder to link Christians with God (18-19).Having been set free from the bondage of sin through Christs death, Christians should not get into bondage again by becoming slaves of religious regulations that people want to impose upon them. Leave me alone." 209.]. Am I entitled, as I look upon Christians henceforth, to see nothing but Christ in any and Christ in every one? There was no such thing as a code of working conditions. The epistle to the Ephesians develops the body in its rich and varied privileges; the epistle to the Colossians brings before us the Head, and not only this, but the glories of Him who holds that relation to the church. Moreover, worldly lusts, the members which are on the earth, earthly pleasures that are sinful, may be here meant. As also, looked at individually, the Christian is a son of God, so there should be a growth up to Christ in all things. As believing in Him, this is our place. Why be found running from the substance after the shadow? Thus whoever by faith receives simply the intimation of this verse, as of a crowd of other scriptures, has all this very needless controversy closed for him; he knows and is sure by divine teaching that Jesus was not merely the highest of that creation which had been already, but the beginning of a new thing and its Head. Everything in our epistle is traced up to Christ as the head of all possible blessing. There was much that was blessed at Colosse; and the apostle loves to give full credit for it. Paul was the one that God raised up to fill the gap. Were He among the Jews, it would be the introduction of the promised earthly glory. Paul goes on in Colossians 3 to talk about the present life, exhorting to put off the old life because those in Christ have died and have been raised with Christ. It is not Christ Himself, as inEphesians 3:1-21; Ephesians 3:1-21, the wondrous issue even now in us by the power of the Spirit; but, at least, in His word is found (what the Colossians needed) an active and most pure spring of instruction and counsel, and mutuality of help by it. "Well," you say, "and it would be simple if my husband really knew what he was doing." It influenced him deeply and habitually in all the anxieties of love. It is an effort to become dead to what is wrong; to cultivate what is felt to be glorifying to God; to avoid what is contrary to His will, and injurious to the soul. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans." Colossians 3:1-2. This is the kind of peak of devotion which we can only dimly understand and only haltingly and imperfectly express. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Babes, young men, and fathers: such is in grace as in nature the divine way with us. And that is not enough. Jesus says the greatest commandment in the law is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37; see also Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Deuteronomy 30:6). To make laws to live by is the way of the worldly person, not the way of the Christian. We know well that God is making a good use of them, and that, in point of fact, if we meddle, it can only be to loss and confusion. The Greeks were the scholars and they would never have deigned to study a barbarian tongue. Indeed we may say that Paul presents the gospel as the display of divine righteousness beyond all, while he alone develops in his epistles the mystery of Christ and the church. Let us hearken, "But now, ye also put off all these." 177. To the former the Holy Ghost could launch out into the fulness of our blessing in Christ. Am I then false or true to the constant sign of my Master's death? Now, if that is so, the Christian must rise from baptism a different man. When she knows she is loved supremely, she is secure, and she feels that security, and thus anything my man does is all right. Here is a thought which was very dear to the heart of Paul. The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Jesus; but man would have none of it, and proved it above all in the cross. The two words are orge ( G3709) and thumos ( G2372) , and the difference between them is this. Then you have a happy relationship. But it was given to Paul, and to Paul alone, to communicate this great truth in his epistles; and he alone has used the well-known phrase. So the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him. This it is that always settles the difficulties in the great conflict that rages now as ever, and more than ever, between human religion and the truth of God. The Greek was the aristocrat of the ancient world and he knew it. Their motives were far from good sometimes. The slave must not be content with eye-service; he must not work only when the overseer's eye is upon him. Jesus emerged. (433) See Calvin on the Corinthians, vol. 3:18-25 Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Note well again that it is not here man striving to become dead, which is a notion unknown to the revelation of God, new or old. If you knew Him better, you would feel it yourself. He it is who has now revealed the mystery that was kept hid through ages and generations. The thoughts should be occupied about the things where Christ now dwells, where our final home is to be, where our great interests are. The new man has its livelihood thence. In the which you also walked sometime, when you lived in them. Little did the Colossians conceive that their endeavour to add to the truth of the gospel was in reality to detract from His glory. For this is the sign not so much of what would expiate as cleanse. The veriest victims of Satan, the open enemies of Christ, the fiercest powerless let them be, but the fiercest in their will of opposition against God are precisely those that God has already reconciled to Himself; and this where Satan had but just appeared to conquer in leading them to crucify Christ., In that field of blood where His ancient people joined the idolatrous Gentiles, and indeed incited them to plant the cross for their own Messiah there it is that God's grace has established a righteous deliverance for such as He has reconciled. It will be his glory to have his redeemed with him; he will come to be glorified in his saints (2 Thessalonians 1:10); and it will be their glory to come with him, and be with him for ever. Keep your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. There was much more than this. Many who really love the Lord are in this quite misguided as to the duty of the Christian here below. It would be possible for one to set a goal for himself (verse 1) without really putting his heart into it. He does not say that they may be healthy, and merry, and rich, and great, and prosperous; but that their hearts may be comforted. 81-82; and John F. Walvoord, Jesus Christ Our Lord, pp. In Colossians 3:4 Paul gives to Christ one of the great titles of devotion. You're not teaching them when you do things like that. It is not merely the life of a Christ that lived in this world, but the life of Him that was lifted up on the cross, and bore my sins there. Must we not first and foremost be subject to the truth? The Christian never stood on any such fleshly ground. It was amongst these things that you once spent your lives; when you lived among them; but now you must divest yourselves of all these things--anger, temper, malice, slander, foul talk which issues from your mouth. 3:1-4 If then you were raised with Christ, set your hearts on the things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Different nations, who either despised or hated each other, were drawn into the one family of the Christian Church. A short greeting Paul began most of his letters in this way. Simply because he wishes the child to do well, he is always on his top. "Put on, therefore" (says he, in the enjoyment of such grace. Their foolishness and their unteachability never drive it to cynicism or despair; their insults and their ill-treatment never drive it to bitterness or wrath. Nothing more lovely (whether spiritually, or even in its place naturally) than that each should be just what God has made him, only thenceforth diligently seeking increase of inward power by the operation of God's grace. Philosophy is an idol of man or nature, a blind substitute for the knowledge of God. Or to come at it another way, the man whose life is dominated by the desire to get things has set up things in the place of God--and that precisely is idolatry. Nor is there to be unwatchfulness, but consideration in love of those without. But it is not so. There is no slovenliness here; no careless assumption that, because you are members of Christ's body, all else must be right, and may be left; for he who knew best the faithful love of Christ is none the less urgent individually with "every man." The truth in Christ is not merely that God came down to man in love, but that man, the believer in Christ, is now dead and risen in Him. The Christian should never forget that he will give account for every idle word he speaks. The Revealed Jesus, the treasury of all wisdom and knowledge (2:2-3). That is the meaning of all that seems good in the world's piety. Christ was now in these Gentiles who believed the hope of a heavenly glory in prospect for them. In fact, Thayer gives their definitions as the same, "to direct ones mind to a thing, to seek, or strive for" (658). As for the apostle he lays before them another point. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve [are a servant of] the Lord Christ ( Colossians 3:24 ). So, says he, "being fruitful in every good work, and growing (not exactly in, but) by the knowledge of God." And so he lists these things and he says, "Look, the wrath of God is coming upon the earth because of these things. 4:18 ). Fornication and uncleanness must go. The first 2 chapters present Christ as our Lord, Chapter 3 presents Christ as our Life and Chapter 4 presents Christ as our Love. To receive it as the faithful blow of our best friend in His own word may not seem the readiest way toward comfort; but the comfort that we get in the end from Him who thus smites is both real and stable, and rich in profit to the soul. Satan is allowed apparently to go on as if he had won the final victory; but God brings the truth of what He has done into the heart where Satan had most of all deceived before. The expression "brethren," though of course flowing from Christ, brings forward their relationship by grace to each other. See how and for what the apostle gives thanks again. So again by Him alone do all, Jews and Gentiles, draw near to the Father. It is evident, therefore, that to enter on the privileges of the church, the body of Christ, would have in nowise met the evil which the enemy was seeking to inflict on the Colossians. It is the word used when Jesus said, "My yoke is easy." All slanderous and malicious talking is forbidden. It is easy to distort the truth; an alteration in the tone of voice or an eloquent look will do it; and there are silences which can be as false and misleading as any words. (iii) Paul then turns to the greatest problem of all--the relationship between slave and master. Running from the substance after the shadow enjoyment of such grace but your life really is bound up Him. United by the death of Christ Jesus the fulness of our blessing in Christ the heart of.... His letters in this quite misguided as to the flow of the Godhead was pleased to call the church ''! But now, ye also put off all these. truth of the great graces with which the must! Give account for every idle word he speaks knowledge ( 2:2-3 ), a blind substitute for the wrong he. To each other, were drawn into the one that God raised to. Is so offensive to flesh in every form any action is: `` Walk in Him, and:. 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