n Luke 8. 13. & 6. 17. Luke 35. 1 Cor. 6. 7. 1 Thess. 5. 8. m Isa. 52. 7. αἷμα καὶ σάρκα, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰς ἀρχὰς, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας, πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκρά τορας τοῦ σκότους, πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις. 13 * Διὰ τοῦτο ἀναλάβετε τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἵνα δυνηθῆτε ἀντιστῆναι κ 2 Cor. 10. 4 ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ πονηρᾷ, καὶ ἅπαντα κατεργασάμενοι στῆναι. 14' Στῆτε οὖν τον τ περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφῦν ὑμῶν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι τὸν θώρακα της 115. δικαιοσύνης, 15 m καὶ ὑποδησάμενοι τοὺς πόδας ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου 182 τῆς εἰρήνης· 16 ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἀναλαβόντες τὸν θυρεὸν τῆς πίστεως, ἐν ᾧ δυνήσεσθε πάντα τὰ βέλη τοῦ πονηροῦ τὰ πεπυρωμένα σβέσαι· 17 η καὶ τὴν περικεφαλαίαν R 19 15 τοῦ σωτηρίου δέξασθε, καὶ τὴν μάχαιραν τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὅ ἐστι ῥῆμα 18 διὰ πάσης προσευχῆς καὶ δεήσεως προσευχόμενοι ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ ἐν ματι, καὶ εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἀγρυπνοῦντες ἐν πάσῃ προσκαρτερήσει καὶ περὶ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων, 19 ° καὶ ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ, ἵνα μοι δοθῇ λόγος ἐν ἀνοίξει στόματός μου ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ γνωρίσαι τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, 20 9 ὑπὲρ πρεσβεύω ἐν ἁλύσει, ἵνα ἐν αὐτῷ παῤῥησιάσωμαι, ὡς δεῖ με λαλῆσαι. 211Ἵνα δὲ εἰδῆτε καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ κατ' ἐμὲ τί πράσσω, πάντα ὑμῖν γνωρίσει Τύχικος ὁ ἀγαπητὸς ἀδελφὸς καὶ πιστὸς διάκονος ἐν Κυρίῳ, 22 · ὃν ἔπεμψα προς τη ὑμᾶς εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο, ἵνα γνῶτε τὰ περὶ ἡμῶν, καὶ παρακαλέσῃ τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν. 23 Θεοῦ. Heb. 4. 12. οὗ Εἰρήνη τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς καὶ ἀγάπη μετὰ πίστεως ἀπὸ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. τι και το 20 p 9 Acts 28, 20. q 2 Cor. 5. 20. *'Ἡ χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν το 1922. ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ· ἀμήν. · κοσμοκράτορας] He calls them rulers of this world,not because they have received any such rule from God, but because the world submits itself to their rule, and eagerly sells itself into slavery to them. Theodoret. τοῦ σκότους] of darkness. It is the opinion of all the doctors of the Church (says S. Jerome), that the intervening air between heaven and earth is full of adverse powers. See above on 1.2. Elz. adds τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, which is not in the majority of the best MSS., which have τούτου after σκότους. τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας] the spiritual powers of wickedness; 'spiritualia nequitiæ' (Vulg.); i. e. whose essence it is to work wickedness. On this use of the neuter plural in a collective sense (the spiritualty, or spiritualhood), and on the genitive, see Winer, § 34, pp. 212, 213. 13. πανοπλίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ] the panoply or whole armour of God. So Ignatius to Polycarp, c. 6, "Let none of you be called a deserter; let your Baptism abide with you as your arms, Paith as your Helmet, Love as your Spear, Patience as your Panoply." 14. περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφῦν] having girt your loins about with truth. See 1 Pet. i. 13. Polycarp ad Philipp. 2. 15. ὑποδησάμενοι-ἐν ἑτοιμασίᾳ κ.τ.λ.] having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. An allusion to the attitude and attire of the Israelites eating the Passover in a state of preparation, or rather preparedness, to quit Egypt, and to march "harnessed" (Exod. xiii. 18) to Canaan. See Exod. xii. 11: “Thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, ye shall eat it in haste." It was a sign of haste to eat standing with their feet shod, in preparation for the journey, that, being strengthened with the Paschal food, they might pass through the vast and terrible wilderness in their way to the promised land. So the Christian, when he sets forth from the Egypt of spirital darkness, is fortified with the “true Passover sacrificed for hima (1 Cor. v. 7), and he goes forth " harnessed,” and has his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, and so is equipped for the march through the wilderness of this world to his heavenly rest. Let none therefore of the true Israelites look back and yearn for Egypt, but let all press onward toward the heavenly Canaan. See Origen, Chrys., and Jerome here. took fire in the projection, cp. Ps. vii. 14; cxx. 4, where the Psalmist speaks of arrows sharpened with coals of "Rethen;" and see Veget. de Re Mil. iv. 18. Winer, R. W. B. p. 190, Art. Bogen. 17. τὴν περικεφαλαίαν] the helmet of salvation (σωτηρίου, ep. Isa. lix. 17, and 1 Thess. v. 8), as a helmet, the hope of salvation (σωτηρίας). δέξασθε] receive yemit is given by God. Observe the difference between this word (δέξασθε) and the preceding verbs, descriptive of the Christian equipment. ῥῆμα Θεοῦ] The Word of God, wherewith the Captain of your salvation defeated the Evil One at the Temptation. See on Matt. iv. 4. 7. 10. 20. πρεσβεύω ἐν ἁλύσει] I am Ambassador in bonds. See Acts xxvi. 29. There is great oratoric δεινότης-power and weight-in these words. Ambassadors of kings are inviolable. But I, the ambassador of the King of Kings, deliver my message in bonds! Yet, the Gospel which I preach is not bound (2 Tim. ii. 9), nor can be: but it will bind Satan, and liberate the world. 21. καὶ ὑμεῖς] ye also as well as others, perhaps the Colossians. See Col. iv. 16. Τύχικος] Tychicus, of Asia. See on Acts xx. 4, where Trophimus is mentioned with him as an 'Ασιανός. Trophimus was of Ephesus. (Acts xxi. 29.) Tychicus was the bearer of this Epistle, probably to various Churches of Asia (see the Introduction to it, p. 278), and of that to the Colossians. (Col. iv. 7.) He seems to have been with St. Paul when he wrote the Epistle to Titus (iii. 12), and was sent again to Ephesus by St. Paul a little before his death. (2 Tim. iv. 12.) 22. ἔπεμψα] Ι send now with this Epistle. The Epistolary aorist. See Acts xxiii. 30. Phil. ii. 28. Philem. 11. 2 Cor. viii. 18. Winer, § 40, p. 249. It was a blessed consolation for them to hear, that Paul at Rome, the metropolis of the Roman empire, was triumphing over his prison and his chains. And this was the consolatory intelligence which they would receive by Tychicus. Jerome. 23. τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς] to the brethren generally. As to the ques. tion why he sends no special greetings to any individuals in this Epistle, although he had spent three years at Ephesus (Acts xix. 10; xx. 31), see above, Introduction, p. 281. On this text see Augustine, Serm. 168, vol. v. p. 1163; and Retract. lib. i. c. 23. 24. Η χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων τ. Κ. ἡ. Ι. Χ.] Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incor The Apostle had been speaking of conjugal union and love, and he had represented it as a figure of the spiritual marriage and love between Christ and His Church (v. 22. 32). He now says, "Grace be with all that love the Lord Jesus Christ v aplapoia:" that is, Grace be with every Christian soul that has been espoused to Christ in spiritual wedlock by baptism, and that loves her Lord Jesus Christ with a pure love, unadul. terated with any admixtures of carnal affection for any worldly object (as the old man was corrupted, see iv. 22), and untainted by heretical pravity of unsound doctrine, or by schismatical pride of sectarian strife. Grace be to them who love Him alone with their whole heart purely and fervently. Such a precept as this is especially appropriate in an Epistle to the Ephesian Church, in which many false Teachers soon afterwards arose,-as St. Paul had predicted (Acts xx. 29),—who cor. rupted the purity of the faith and love of Jesus Christ with unsound doctrine, and carnal sensuality; and against whom, the Evangelist St. John, living at Ephesus, and presiding over the Asiatic Church, afterwards delivered his Apostolic warning, and on whom he pronounced an Apostolic censure, in his Epistles. See below, Introduction to St. John's first Epistle. This meaning of the Apostle may be illustrated by his words to the philosophical, carnally-minded, and schismatical members of the Corinthian Church, who did not love Christ èv àp@apoíą: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted (p0app) from the simplicity (or singleness, oneness, and pureness) of love in Christ." The word peap, as there used, explains the sense of its opposite à-plapola here; and this sense is approved by ancient Expositors (Chrys., Jerome, Theophyl.) and Versions, especially the Vulg., Syriac, Gothic, and Arabic, which thus paraphrases the word, "with a love free from blemish or corruption." Hence this word may well be supposed here to signify the incorruptibility of a spiritual and eternal love,—a love which flows forth from the pure well-spring of the inner man of the heart, in the incorruptible (àpápтw) element of the meek and quiet spirit described by St. Peter (1 Pet. iii. 4),—a love which knows no decay, and is not affected by time,-a love which is never blighted or withered, but is as undying and unfading as the crown of glory which it will one day wear. This is the sense in which the words of St. Paul seem to have been understood by an Apostolic Father and Martyr, who says in his Epistle to the Ephesians; "Whosoever corrupts (as a p0elpp) the faith by evil teaching, will go into unquenchable fire. For this cause, Christ received the unction on His Head, in order that He might diffuse incorruption (aplapolav) to the Church. Be not ye therefore anointed with the noisome odours of the dogmas of the Ruler of this World." (S. Ignatius ad Eph. 16.) And to the Magnesians (c. 6) he says, "Let no one separate you into parties, but be united to your Bishop and the Presidents of the Church, for a type and discipline of Incorruption” (à¢8aprías, i. e. of soundness and integrity in faith and practice). And be calls the Gospel of Christ the perfection of incorruption, and says that it contains every blessing, if we believe with love. (Phil adelph. 9.) And in his Epistle to the Romans he says, "I have no pleasure in the food of corruption (popas), nor in the plessures of this world; but I hunger for the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who was born in the latter days from the seed of David and of Abraham, and I thirst for the drink of God, which is His blood, which is Love incorruptible (àydân áplаpтos) and everlasting life.” S. Ignatius ad Rom. c. 7. INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. I. On the design and contents of the Epistle to the Colossians. THE Epistle to the Colossians, like the other Epistles of St. Paul, holds its own peculiar place, and performs its own special work, in the system of Christian Teaching, which has been vouchsafed by the Holy Spirit, operating by the ministry of the Apostle. This Epistle may best be considered in connexion with that to the neighbouring Church, and great City, of Ephesus. Both these Epistles were written by St. Paul, at the same place, Rome, and about the same time; that is, in his first imprisonment in that City (A.D. 61-63), and appear to have been conveyed by the same person, Tychicus'. The Epistle to the COLOSSIANS, in its plan and substance, may be regarded as following, by a natural sequence, the Epistle to the EPHESIANS. If the comparison may be allowed, the divine Apostle, bearing in his hand these two Epistlesthat to the Ephesians, and that to the Colossians-may be likened to the builders of the literal City of God, of whom we read in the Book of Nehemiah, "Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held a weapon. The builders every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded"." So the Apostle here. He is both a builder and a soldier. He has his sword girded by his side, and so builds. He builds up the Truth in one Epistle; and he wars against Error in the other. He builds in the Epistle to the Ephesians; in the Epistle to the Church of Colossæ he has his sword girded at his side. He has thus left a practical lesson to the Church, and to every Christian. The Church on earth is ever militant; and she has ever also her work of edification. She must build as well as fight; and she must fight as well as build. And every Christian is a soldier; but he must also be a builder. The soldiers of Nehemiah, with a trowel in their hand, and a sword girded at their side, and so building the City of God, and the Apostle St. Paul building up the Church with one Epistle, and at the same fighting against her enemies with another, are examples for every Christian in every age. The similarity of thought and language between these two Epistles' proclaims the connexion of the Subject and the identity of the Author. 1 Eph. vi. 22. Col. iv. 7. Compare Davidson's Introduction, ii. pp. 346-350, and Alford's Prolegomena, iii. pp. 18-23. Guerike, Einleitung, pp. 368-383. Kirchofer, Quellensammlung, pp. 208. 211. Neh. iv. 17, 18. These two Epistles, written by the same Author, at the same place, and at the same time, shed a clear light upon a matter of great importance in the history of the writings of the New Testament, which has been much obscured by doubts and difficulties,—namely, the genuineness of the Second Epistle of St. Peter. The First Epistle of St. Peter may be compared to the Epistle to the Ephesians; and the Second Epistle of St. Peter ranges with the Epistle to the Colossians. More will be said hereafter on this topic in the Introduction to St. Peter's Second Epistle. The Epistle to the Ephesians, with its constructive character, and the Epistle to the Colossians, with its polemical protests, and denunciatory refutations, have each their respective office and use. Both are grounded on the foundation of the same doctrines, especially that of the Divine Love in the Mystery of the Incarnation. Both were written at the same time by the same Apostolic hand, that of Paul the prisoner of Christ; they were both sent into Asia by the same messenger, the beloved Tychicus. The Ephesian Epistle was to be communicated to the Colossians, and the Colossian Epistle was to be communicated to the Ephesians; the Apostle himself (it would seem) gave a special direction to that effect'. Each of the two Epistles would afford salutary instruction to the readers of the other, in that age, and in every succeeding generation; and in these two Epistles, written and sent simultaneously, the Church Universal would recognize a beautiful example of her own duty, to drive away dangerous errors, especially those which assail the doctrines of Christ's Incarnation and Atonement, while at the same time she builds up her people on the only solid foundation and immoveable Rock of Truth, Christ Jesus, confessed to be Very Man, and to be the Son of the Living God'. Let us consider, a little more at large, the evidence of these propositions. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, as we have already seen, the holy Apostle, as a wise masterbuilder', had laid deep and strong the groundwork of the Christian Church upon Christ, acknowledged to be GOD, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, the King and Lord of Angels, Creator and Ruler of the world; and upon the same Christ, condescending to become Man, and by His Incarnation uniting Human Nature in His own Person to the Divine Nature, and offering Himself on the Cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and reconciling God to man in Himself, and purchasing to Himself an Universal Church by His own Blood, and vanquishing the Principalities and Powers of this world by His Death, and abolishing the enmity between Angels and Men, and between Men and Men, knitting together both Jews and Gentiles as fellowmembers in His own Mystical Body, the Church, by the profession of One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; and thus harmonizing and restoring, consecrating and summing-up all in one; and proclaiming and establishing an Universal and Everlasting Peace, and blending every thing, and bringing all persons to dwell together in Unity, in Himself, God and Man, and through Himself, in the Father, the Sovereign Author of all, and the Fountain and Well-Spring of Love; and having ascended up on High, and given gifts to men, as a divine boon and royal largess to the World, on the glorious occasion of His Coronation and Inauguration, as Man, in Heaven, and of His Session as our King and Head at the Right Hand of God; and by these Gifts of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, providing for the organization and consolidation, as also for the continual increase and enlargement of the living fabric of His Church, till it expands to its full stature, to the perfectness of its growth in Christ. These mysterious truths, to the height of which no human Intelligence can climb, the depth of which no human Reason can fathom, and the length and breadth of which no human Capacity can comprehend, and which even the Angels of heaven themselves did not know, and had been dimly seen by the Prophets, and prefigured by the types and shadows of the Levitical Law, are now revealed by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and are displayed to the eyes of Angels and of Men, by the Church, as in a clear mirror, where all may contemplate the beauty and glory of the Love of God in Christ. ; From these transcendent dcctrines, fully developed', the Apostle had proceeded to enforce the practical duties of Unity in the Faith, of Truth, of Charity, of Holiness. He had shown in the Epistle to the Ephesians, how the daily duties of domestic and social life, the duties of Wives to Husbands, and Husbands to Wives; the duties of Children to Parents, and of Parents to Children the duties of Slaves to Masters, and of Masters to Slaves, all grow out of this one Root, and flourish on the one stem of Unity in Christ, confessed to be God and Man, and of Communion with His Body the Church'. The divine Apostle, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, had thus prepared the way for a subsequent theological application of these fundamental principles, in the Epistle to the Colossians; not only for the purpose of establishing and confirming Evangelical Truth, but also of refuting and exploding Heretical errors. The Epistle to the Colossians discloses various forms of religious error, which are not displayed in any other Epistle of St. Paul, but which, having been disseminated by the Evil One in the field of the Church, and having taken root in primitive times in Phrygia, have brought forth a large harvest of evil, and are still prevalent in our own age. These errors, like all others which have been most disastrous to the Church, presented themselves originally in the specious garb of Good. They came forward in the name of Philosophy and superior intelligence, and yet were vain and illusory. Their Teachers dressed themselves up in the guise of Humility, and yet were inflated with Pride. They affected sanctity, and meekness, and a religious reverence for the ritual and ordinances of God according to the Levitical Law'; and yet, in a spirit of proud and arbitrary lawlessness, they usurped a tyrannical dominion over the wills and consciences of men; and not holding the Head, required them to receive their own human commands and traditions as terms of communion, and as necessary to salvation, and imposed upon them a system of Will-Worship". They professed to promote superior spirituality by rigorous rules of asceticism, and self mortification, and neglect of the body, and yet were vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind"; they ministered to the gratification of the carnal appetites, and to sensual indulgences, by denying due honour to the body 12, particularly by derogating from the dignity of Christ, God manifest in the flesh 13; and thus they were depriving the Human Body of its most glorious prerogative,—that of being sanctified, consecrated, and glorified by the Incarnation of the Son of God, and by union in Him to God. 13 12 They professed to be deeply sensible of their own unworthiness, and of the corruption of fallen man, and therefore to be afraid to approach an offended and all-holy God; and in a spirit of affected humility and awe for His tremendous Majesty and for the Holiness of His Nature, and for Him Who had revealed Himself of old by the ministry of Angels, and of honour for His righteous Law which He had given amid thunders and lightnings from Mount Sinai by the agency of Angels, and of respect for His Word, which represented Angels as Princes of Kingdoms ", they invoked Angels as Mediators, and thus did dishonour to the only Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus", Whom, on account of His being man, they treated as inferior to the Angels. And while they professed extraordinary sanctity and devotion to God, they attempted to suborn God's Servants, the Elect Angels, to be accomplices in rebellion against Him, and they perverted the blessed Mystery of the Incarnation,—that stupendous marvel and crowning consummation of God's Love toward man in Christ, for man's everlasting glory and bliss,—into an occasion for working man's ruin, and for dishonouring and degrading Him Who is God Incarnate, God manifest in the flesh, and for frustrating the mercy of God the Father in the person of His dear Son. Such were the machinations of the Evil One in the Churches of Phrygia. Such were the spiritual perils which beset the Church of Colossæ. Almighty God, in His wisdom and love, controlled and overruled these evils for endless good to the Colossian Church, and to the Church Universal of every age and country, by the ministry of St. Paul in the present Epistle. 1. The Apostle here asserts in the clearest terms the Godhead of Christ 16, and has thus furnished a divine refutation of all Arian and Socinian Heresies which contravene that Doctrine. |