Colossians 1

   1:1-8.   Paul writes to the church in Colossae, a small city about 100 miles east of Ephesus.  It was near two more important cities, Laodicea and Hierapolis (4:13).  Paul had not personally been to these places, there having heard the gospel through Epaphras, and perhaps others, who had likely received it from Paul (4, 7, 8; 2:1).  Paul writes from prison (4:18), probably in Rome, and wrote Philemon at the same time (and probably Ephesians. See note, Col.4:1) (cf. 4:9 and Phm. 10).

     The purpose of the letter seems to be to counter certain false doctrines that the Colossians were being exposed to, probably from both Jewish and pagan sources, and to instruct them in Christian living (9, 10).  The false doctrine became fully mature in the Gnostic teachings of the 2nd century, but the spores of such errors were always there, and are very evident today.

     Even these introductory verses contain a wealth of doctrine.  We owe gratitude to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (3).  We recognize Christians by their faith in Christ Jesus, and their love for his saints, his set apart people (4).  Our hope is reserved for us in heaven, which we know by the word of truth, the gospel (5).  The gospel is universal, going to all kinds of men in all the world, and bearing increase not only in numbers, but also as it becomes more fruitful in each one who has heard and understood the grace of God in truth (6), the gift of God’s love in us by the Holy Spirit (8).

     1:9-10.  The real knowledge and wisdom which the Spirit gives us (i.e., correct doctrine laid on the heart) brings a worthy walk (i.e., righteous living), which in turn leads to fruit bearing and an increase in the knowledge of God.  That is, obedience to what we know results in further knowledge of his will.

      1:11-12,  Thus the power of God strengthens us, giving steadfastness and patience (i.e., fidelity in testing and suffering), and rejoicing in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

     1:13-14.  The Father has redeemed us out of the dark domain of Satan and sin, having purchased redemption and forgiveness for us through his beloved Son.

     1:15-19.  Further elaborating, Paul gives us these important verses on the preeminence of the eternal  (not created) Son over all things created.

     1:15.  The image of the invisible God; the Son’s incarnation made God visible to the eyes of men, coming in their likeness (cf. Php.2:6-8).

     The first-born of all creation; this actually attacks the error that Christ was merely the first created being.  Paul’s point is that Christ is preeminent over every created thing.  Just as he existed before he was the first-born from the dead (18), so he existed before he was the first-born of all creation (16-17; cf. John 1:1-3; 17:5).

     1:18-19.  Not only was he the creator of all things visible and invisible in the old creation, but as first-born of the dead, he also has first place over the new creation.  He is the head of the body, the church, and by his resurrection has preeminence in everything, the fullness of God dwelling in him (cf. Eph.1:23).

     1:20-23.  Reconciliation and peace with God can only come one way–through the sacrifice of Christ’s cross.  Nothing else in heaven and earth can purchase our peace (20).  His death presents formerly alienated sinners as holy and blameless before God (21-22).  And so it will be for all who are steadfastly and truly his.  The gospel which they have heard is the only hope, the same gospel preached everywhere to every kind of person (6; cf. Mt.24:14; Acts 1:8),  of which God made Paul a minister (23).

     1:24-29.  “…Christ does as it were suffer in his members, in all their afflictions he is afflicted” (24).  Jonathan Edwards. Cf. Is.63:9.

     John Calvin also has a good deal to say about Col.1:24.  See Institutes, 3:5:3,4; Westminster Press, 1960, from which is gleaned this brief sample.  Calvin says that out of all the “terrible sacrileges and blasphemies” Rome has “patched together,” this one is the worst;  “…that martyrs by their death have given more to God and deserved more than they needed for themselves, and that they had a great surplus of merits to over flow to others.  In order, therefore, that this great good should not be superfluous, they mingled their blood with the blood of Christ; and out of the blood of both, the treasury of the church is fabricated for the forgiveness and satisfaction of sins.  And Paul’s statement, ‘In my body I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church’ [Col.1:24] is to be understood in this sense.”

      After quoting Scripture and Augustine to refute such errors, Calvin ends with this:  “So, then, one who would rest the worthiness of any saint anywhere save in God’s mercy would be contemptuous of God and his Anointed.  But why do I tarry here any longer, as if this were still something obscure, when to lay bare such monstrous errors is to vanquish them?”

     But what was lacking was not the price of redemption.  Jesus paid it all.  What was lacking was the preaching of it (25), the revelation of the great riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles (i.e., all kinds of men, not just Jews), “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”(27; John 12:32; Acts 28:28).  This was the ministry and stewardship God bestowed upon Paul, and for which he suffered in the flesh, and Christ in him, and in which he rejoiced (cf. Ro.10:14; Php.2:30; 1 John 1:2-3.  Also cf. Acts 9:15-16; 11:17-18.  The mystery; cf. Eph.3:1-7). It is in this sense that he saw himself as a drink offering, a libation poured out upon the blood of Christ, the saving blood of the cross (Php.2:17; 2Tim.4:6).