Thus we should hold Him fast, not only in other respects, but in this special relation of "Head.". For instance, under Jewish law, a husband could divorce his wife for any cause, while a wife had no rights whatever in the initiation of divorce; and the only grounds on which a divorce might be awarded her were if her husband developed leprosy, became an apostate or ravished a virgin. He is in effect saying that his Christianity must make him a better and more efficient slave. 1. There are at least two vivid pictures here. Commentary on Colossians 3:1-11 Karl Jacobson Your best life nowis hidden. 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. Luther himself said, "Spare the rod and spoil the child. The Christian must put off anger and temper. And, to anger, is not in the original text. Hey, it opens up so many opportunities to witness for you. It was they that yielded to these feelings of hostility. Somehow or another, freethinkers and superstitious men coalesce in reality. Not, of course, that He was the earliest on the earth like Adam. The fundamental effect of this Christian teaching is that marriage becomes a partnership. So the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Neither James nor Peter, neither John nor Jude, treat of justification before God by faith in Jesus. [Note: Barclay, p. The Colossians from their dabbling with tradition and philosophy were in danger on this side. If it is the desire for power, it leads to sadistic tyranny. Such is God's word, and are we, or are we not, entitled to say so now? The sense of the phrase can be captured with "direct your mind to minding things above.". In point of time the world had grown comparatively old before Jesus appeared. One cannot therefore be quickened together with Christ without having one's trespasses, yea, all (for if not all, none) forgiven. (5-7) Put to death the things that are against God and part of this world. They are in nowise the same, but may be viewed each as a supplement to the other. 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. As this gives us the new estate, and position, and relation in which stands the glorious person of the Lord Jesus, so next we have a view of His work suitably to the object of the epistle: "For all the fulness was pleased in him to dwell." He is the first-born from among the dead, as well as the Head and firstborn Heir of all subsisting creation. Read full chapter Colossians 1 Colossians 3 In Greek society a respectable woman lived a life of entire seclusion. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, [now, you put on Jesus Christ, you put off these things, put off anger, wrath, and malice and instead, put on] bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, and if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. She trusts my judgment; she trusts my wisdom. These last three forbidden things have all to do with speech. No one, no thing, can add to Christ's power, lustre, or value in any one respect. It is our privilege that we have risen with Christ; that is, have benefit by the resurrection of Christ, and by virtue of our union and communion with him are justified and sanctified, and shall be glorified. The science of language is a new science and the desire to know other languages a new desire. Then come general injunctions. So "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts;" that is, the very peace which Christ Himself lived and moved in. It is rather "your mind;" for here, however important the state of the heart, it is a question simply of the whole bent and judgment. It is a spiritual kingdom for those who are living and walking after the Spirit, regardless of what you may say or affirm to be so. "Put on, therefore" (says he, in the enjoyment of such grace. Neither the Gnostics nor any other unbelievers can understand this life, because the life is in Christ and therefore is hidden from their view. He assigns three reasons for this, Colossians 3:3; Colossians 3:4. All question, therefore, of what existed before His death and resurrection is at once excluded. There was no doubt a suitability for each line of truth in the wants of the saints respectively addressed; nor do I think it can be intelligently questioned that the condition of the Ephesian saints was better than that of those at Colosse. The cross of Christ is the death-knell of the world in all its pretensions before God. Forgiving one another is fortified by His example who did no sin, neither was evil found in His mouth. There is no imperfectness in that word, neither does any ground exist to suppose that any part of it has vanished away. Continue to teach and to admonish each other with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. We are not Jews; we have our place in Christ dead and risen, or are nothing. Thus it begins, not with the incarnation (for sin was not yet judged, nor man brought to God), but with the cross, with redemption. (ii) It is most significant to note that every one of the graces listed has to do with personal relationships between man and man. For really you are dead to them, and that's the principal he is teaching. Its basic idea is the desire for that which a man has no right to have. And the tragedy is that many people have become so habituated to unclean talk that they are unaware that they are using it. 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. The word father in his mind stood for nothing but severity. In its own nature like the rays from the sky, it was the sun not for one part of the world alone, but for every quarter. ( Matthew 11:30). Who can be so deeply concerned as the Christian? ", All the blessedness that Christ has procured is for those that believe; but this of course supposes that they hold Him fast. Yes, but Christ is "all" as truly as He is "in all." The Greeks themselves defined it as insatiate desire and said that you might as easily satisfy it as you might fill with water a bowl with a hole in it. Note, The prosperity of the soul is the best prosperity, and what we should be most solicitous about for ourselves and others. But God has even now a far greater purpose at heart. "If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." Tradition never manifested the true God. In the ancient world children were very much under the domination of their parents. There was no Christianity i.e., no deliverance of man and setting him in the Second Man before Christ became first-born from among the dead. The tendency of any body of people is sooner or later to fly apart; love is the one bond which will hold them together in unbreakable fellowship. 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 apostle, having described our privileges by Christ in the former part of the epistle, and our discharge from the yoke of the ceremonial law, comes here to press upon us our duty as inferred thence. Thus is seen first of all, in virtue of the dead and risen Christ in whom they believed, that they were quickened and all their trespasses forgiven, two things here strikingly united together. Put on the new self, which is ever freshly renewed until it reaches fullness of knowledge, in the likeness of its creator. 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. The Jew looked only for a mighty King Messiah; the Christian is baptized into the death of Him who suffered on the cross, and finds not alone his sins forgiven, but sin, the flesh, condemned, and himself now viewed of God as dead to all; for nothing less is set forth in baptism. While He lived, this work was wholly unaccomplished. They have undoubtedly taught that which is consistent with it and even supposes it. But he adds: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled;" and we must not weaken this. Then he gives a specimen of these: "Touch not; taste not; handle not." It is a question now of truth and holiness in the Spirit of Christ, in short. You must live as God's people. 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. Here the candy, ha, ha, ha, ha." 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). And so put off the old man, and put on the new. There was, there could be, no lack of the attractiveness of love and power in Him who went about doing good; yet miserable hearts did not turn to Him, save where the grace of God the Father drew them to the only adequate expression of Himself. It is not a question of the lower ranks of creation only, but takes in the highest "whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him." This is not holding the Head. Hence, though the Holy Ghost is really on earth, dwelling in the saint and in the church, yet under such circumstances, to occupy the mind even with the blessed Spirit, would clearly have interfered with His own great aim in glorifying Jesus. II. He must be heavenly-minded here on earth and so help to make earth like heaven." Love heavenly things; studythem; let your hearts be entirely engrossedby them. This is the only allusion to the Spirit, as far as I remember, in the epistle. And when we turn them into positive commands instead of negative prohibitions, we find three laws for Christian speech. Of God He is the image, not exactly in an exclusive, but assuredly in the only adequate sense. 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. The apostle exhorts us to set our hearts upon heaven and take them off from this world ( v. 1-4 ). The one and same Christ it is who has settled everything. I'm dead to the flesh that I might be alive unto God in Christ, living after the Spirit. Paul goes on to list some of the things which the Colossians must cut right out of life. Verse Colossians 3:2. Our thoughts should be occupied about the things where Christ now dwells, where our final home is to be, where our great interests are. It is, however, evident from what has been remarked, that the two letters do in the most remarkable manner correspond to each other; the one presenting the Head, the other the body. If the latter, it had got to Laodicea, whence the Colossians were to procure it in their turn. Under Roman law a slave could not possess any property whatsoever and here he is being promised nothing less than the inheritance of God. The word signifies to mind them, and think on them, to favour and approve of them, to be affectionately desirous of them, and concerned for them; for where the treasure is, the heart should be; and as the saints' best things are above, their minds and affections should be there likewise; their contemplation should be on those things, and their conversation should be in heaven; nor should they regard anything but what is there, or comes from thence, for they belong not to this world, but to another and better country: their citizenship is in heaven, and there, in a short time, they must have their everlasting residence; and therefore should seek after, and highly prize and value heavenly things, and set their affections on them, and. But there is a crowning quality: "And above all these things put on charity," because this is, as nothing else can be, the fullest sign of that which God is Himself, the energy of His nature. It is, therefore, a sin with a very wide range. Impossible that He could be aught but the first-born. Am I then false or true to the constant sign of my Master's death? Goodness by itself can be stern; but chrestotes ( G5544) is the goodness which is kind, that type of goodness which Jesus used to the sinning woman who anointed his feet ( Luke 7:37-50). He uses a verb from the athletic arena; it is the word that is used of the umpire who settled things in any matter of dispute. Colossians 3:1. CHRIST OUR LIFE ( Colossians 3:1-4 continued). And so he becomes cold. The stronger our faith, and the warmer our love, the more will our comfort be. This is the fountain of all true knowledge, and so Christ is the truth as to everything and every one. The ancient world was full of barriers. Also the reason seems obvious. Do not be uneasy at the talk of critics: it is natural for dealers to cry up their wares. There is kindness (chrestotes, G5544) . It lies in the fact that now the thoughts of the Christian must be set on the things which are above. There is humility (tapeinophrosune, G5012) . But don't lose touch with the chap in front of you.' That we might teach and admonish one another.] 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. When the soul has been in peace weaned from all else, and found all its joy and boast in Christ, it can then hear more freely. The slave must not be content with eye-service; he must not work only when the overseer's eye is upon him. Paul begins with a heart of pity. We very often evade the truth on which the New Testament insists, that a Christianity which does not change a man is most imperfect. Set your affection - Margin, or mind. Greek think of - phroneite. None could pretend that He had ever refused a single soul; none could say that they had gone empty away. It is as if Paul said, "For you the treasures of wisdom are hidden in your secret books; for us Christ is the treasury of wisdom and we are hidden in him.". We might well suppose that there was some hindrance to the full flow of affection an their part. Yet even this did not reconcile man to God, but the very reverse rather; it proved that man was irreconcilable as far as he was concerned. The word he uses is the word for putting off clothes. Constructively, to my mind, this points to the great sign of His death. She lived in the women's apartments and did not join her menfolk even for meals. Here the doctrine carries one a little farther than eitherRomans 6:1-23; Romans 6:1-23 or 1 Peter 3:1-22. His function was to fill up the word of God, "even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.". He is the only divine source, sphere, and means of real growth for the soul. not on things on the earth; not mind earth and earthly things, temporal enjoyments, riches, and honours; and though food and raiment, and the necessaries of life, are to be sought after, and cared and provided for, yet not with anxiety and perplexity of mind, in an over thoughtful and distressing manner; nor should the heart be set on those outward things, or happiness placed in the possession of them. He is answerable to God, just as his workmen are answerable to him. Both must be directed at things above. Ambitions which dominated the world, will be powerless to touch him. Let His peace rule. The most honoured servants of God invariably stir up the keenest opposition from man. None of the others has touched on it not one. "He is the head of all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh [for so it runs] by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen.". For none of these reasons, though He was all this, and more. Now, that ye are converted to God, act in reference to heavenly things as ye did formerly in reference to those of earth; and vice versa. it is impossible to look for it from human nature. Have you mortified the deeds of the flesh? In Christ the saint is above them, and leaves them to God without anxiety or envy. Paul begins with a vivid demand. Thus it matters not what part of Ephesians is looked at. Christian speech must be kind and pure and honest to all men and in all places. As Paul said, "For me to live is Christ," and I love this powerful statement.] For the baptized soul confesses that the grace of God gives death to sin in Him who died and rose again. In any parent-child relationship the dominating thought must be the Fatherhood of God; and we must try to treat our children as God treats his sons and daughters. Colossians 3:2 says, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things," or, as the NET puts it, "Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth." To set one's mind on something is to choose to think about it, influencing one's goals and guiding one's course of action. There were evils to be corrected, dancers to be warned against; but if he thinks of that which the Father has in view for them, and of them in view of His glory, less he could not say, neither could he say more. This new creation is a continual renewal. May He make and keep us faithful! "Here, you want this candy? "And be ye thankful. Thus the believer can look round full of joy upon his brethren; he can count up souls from every tribe, tongue, and station. 89-90; David A. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. [Note: Robertson, 4:500.]. Lit., be minded, think. I am aware that men have reasoned much about it; but this is a proof that evidence fails. Is the heart satisfied with Him? But the apostle was singular in this; for even those who did know that Christ was the Son of the living God, in the highest and eternal sense, seemed but little to have preached it, at any rate in their earlier testimony. It is polemic in spirit and argues that we have everything in Christ, that he is the source and Lord of all creation and that he alone can forgive sins and reconcile us to God. Thus they have a closer connection than any others in the New Testament. Colossians 2:9-10. Our true life lies in the other world: You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God,Colossians 3:3; Colossians 3:3. He must say, "This is God's business. Now comes the positive character to be borne) "Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved." The greatest scholar in the world and the simplest son of toil can sit in perfect fellowship in the Church of Christ. The apostle, however, speaks of his service in these two respects: the gospel, which is universal in its aspect to every creature under heaven; and the church, which is a special and chosen body. He who probed it all cannot be endured. Colossians is in many ways "the epistle in the middle." It seems to be midway in the development from the historical Paul to documents such as Ephesians and 1-2 Timothy and Titus that are clearly written in a later generation to update Paul for a new day. "Even as Christ forgave you." Am I to forget His glory in the presence of God? The epistle to the Ephesians views the saint as already blessed by God in heavenly places in Christ. Oh, but how important that we are able to say, "Christ who is my life." 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. And you should be seeking those things which are above where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Do we look for such a happiness, and should we not set our affections upon that world, and live above this? Immediately after this Paul goes on to lay down a series of ethical principles which make it quite clear that he expects the Christian to go on with the work of this world and to maintain all its normal relationships. Am I entitled, as I look upon Christians henceforth, to see nothing but Christ in any and Christ in every one? This was an entirely new thing. "In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." Christ in them. Christ will appear again. So, as the wife submits, the husband finds it easy to show his love. Most of all this was the case in slavery. One of the best tests of any action is: "Can we do it, calling upon the name of Jesus? Resources . This cannot be forgiven by all who cleave to the first man, on the side either of ordinances or of philosophy. The apostle would have them to feel the slightest touch of another's misery; and, as their clothes are put over their body, so their tenderest feeling should be always within the reach of the miserable. Yes, Christ is in all, and Christ is all. These things at first sight appear far apart, but they are not so in result. 1 Paul, a an apostle of Christ Jesus b by the will of God, and Timothy c our brother,. Colossians 3 Living as Those Made Alive in Christ 1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Oh, what majesty, as well as adaptation to need, in the truth of God! not on things on the earth; not mind earth and earthly things, temporal enjoyments, riches, and honours; and though food and raiment, and the necessaries of life, are to be sought after, and cared and provided for, yet not with anxiety and perplexity of mind, in an over thoughtful and distressing manner; nor should the heart be set on those outward things, or happiness placed in the possession of them. In the Spirit are both built together for God's habitation. 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 case, the knowledge and wisdom are kept in Christ, but made available to those who believe in Him. Then Paul uses a vivid picture. Look busy." The life of the Christian is hid with Christ in God. 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. Your Hidden Life Now; perhaps this could be the subtitle of the letter to the Colossians. The Christian doctrine of work is that master and man alike are working for God, and that, therefore, the real rewards of work are not assessable in earthly coin, but will some day be given--or withheld--by God. And what a deliverance from self to see Christ in them! What is there here to make us fond of it? Thus in every way the ritualistic system is false, and a traitor to Him who died on the cross. Heavenly places in Christ, '' and I love this powerful statement ]! His wife as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. under law... 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