ACC ~ Colossians 1 v9 - 14

OVERVIEW:

Paul’s intention here is to encourage the Colossian Christians in the special knowledge and virtue that are necessary parts of faithfulness and that are possible only as we cling to Christ and not the angels (SEVERIAN. AUGUSTINE). By declaring his desire to pray for them Paul means to strengthen the Colossians in their continued growth in faith and their already realized participation in Christ’s kingdom (CHRYSOSTOM, THEODORE). What is most important is that the Colossians know that this saving grace is only through Christ (SEVERIAN), this fact constituting the higher knowledge that is the antidote to heresy (THEODORET). Paul’s prayer suggests that there is a “higher knowledge” yet to come, as the Colossians mature in faith (CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA) and come to know Jesus not only as crucified but also as risen (ORIGEN).

God’s saving work in Christ on our behalf operates on the basis of pure love, which God essentially is (AMBROSE). This love is given to us through the Spirit as a pure gift, unmerited and impossible to attain by our own efforts. Therefore, it is shown that all are subject to sin, infants included (AUGUSTINE).

1:9a | We Have Not Ceased to Pray for You

A GENTLE HINT. CHRYSOSTOM: Not for one day do we pray for you, nor yet for two, nor three. By this Paul both shows his love and gives them a gentle hint that they had not yet arrived at the end. For the words “that you may be filled” signify this. … He says, “that you may be filled,” rather than “that you may receive,” because in fact they had already received. “That you may be filled” refers to what they were still lacking. Thus Paul rebukes without giving offense and praises without producing laziness in them, as though they were already complete. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 2.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul’s prayer is his way of building on the fundamentals of belief already taught to the Colossians, so that faith will be extended to practice, to right actions. COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS.

1:9b | The Knowledge of His Will

WHAT IS THAT WILL? SEVERIAN OF GABALA: It is God’s will, that we acknowledge him and know that it is not possible to be saved by angels but only through Jesus Christ. How then can we know this? Through spiritual, not worldly, wisdom. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMBROSE: What, then, is more divine than the working of the Holy Spirit, since God himself testifies that the Holy Spirit presides over his blessings? … For no blessing can be full except through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Wherefore, too, the apostle found nothing better to wish us than this, as he himself said: “We cease not to pray and make request for you that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding walking worthily of God.” He taught that this was the will of God: that by walking in good works and words and affections, we should be filled with God’s will, who puts his Holy Spirit into our hearts. OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 1.7.89.

1:10a | To Lead a Life Worthy of the Lord

ALWAYS VIRTUE. CHRYSOSTOM: Here he speaks of life and its works, for so he does also everywhere: with faith Paul always couples conduct. … Summarily, Paul states, we pray that you may lead a life of virtue, worthy of your citizenship, and may stand firmly, being strengthened as it is reasonable to be strengthened by God. For this reason Paul does not yet focus upon doctrines, but dwells upon life. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 2.

ONLY BY GRACE. AUGUSTINE: We are commanded to do good when it says: “Decline from evil and do good,” but we pray to do good when it says: “We cease not to pray for you, asking,” and among other things that Paul asks he mentions: “That you may walk worthy of God in all things pleasing, in every good work and good word.” As then we acknowledge the part played by the will when these commands are given, so let him acknowledge the part played by grace when these petitions are offered. LETTERS 177.1.5.

1:10b | Bearing Fruit

BY FREE CHOICE. PELAGIUS: That man walks worthily of God who pleases him in all things: that is, that he may bear fruit in good work with the knowledge of God. At the same time Paul has expressed something here that is obscure elsewhere, namely, how God gives the power to will and helps and strengthens us by teaching wisdom and granting the grace of understanding, and not by taking away freedom of choice. This is why he prays that they may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual knowledge, so that they may walk worthily of God in all things. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS.

1:10c | And Increasing in the Knowledge of God

A HIGHER KNOWLEDGE. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: For there is an instruction of the perfect, concerning which Paul writes to the Colossians: “We don’t stop praying for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” … On the one hand, there are the mysteries which were hid till the time of the apostles and were delivered by them as they received from the Lord; these, concealed in the Old Testament, were manifested to the saints. And, on the other hand, there is “the riches of the glory of the mystery in the Gentiles,” which is faith and hope in Christ; which in another place he has called the “foundation.” STROMATA 5.10.

1:12a | Giving Thanks to the Father Who Has Qualified Us

QUALIFIED BY GOD TO RECEIVE. CHRYSOSTOM: By saying, “who has qualified us,” Paul emphasizes an important point. For example, if a person of low rank were to become a king, he would have the power to make any person he wishes governor; and this is the extent of his power, namely, that he can give such a dignity. He cannot, however, make the person he has chosen fit for the office, and often the honor thus conferred makes a person ridiculous. If, however, he has both conferred the honor, and made the person worthy of it, and capable of exercising it, then a very great honor has indeed been conferred. This is what Paul says here: that God not only has given the honor but also made us strong enough to receive it. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 2.

VESSELS MADE PERFECT. BASIL THE GREAT: For he himself has bound the strong man and stolen his goods, that is, humanity itself, whom our enemy had abused in every evil activity. God has created “vessels fit for the Master’s use,” that is, us who have been perfected for every work through the preparation of that part of us which is in our own control. Thus we gained our approach to the Father through him, being translated from “the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” ON THE SPIRIT 8.18.

AUGUSTINE: How can the apostle say: “Giving thanks to God the Father, who makes us suitable for a share of the lot of the saints in light, who has snatched us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son,” unless the will that liberates us is not ours but his? LETTERS 217.1.3.

THE HEAVENLY SPECTATORS. ORIGEN: A great theater is filled with spectators to watch your contests and your summons to martyrdom, just as if we were to speak of a great crowd gathered to watch the contests of athletes supposed to be champions. … Thus, the whole world and all of the angels of the right and the left, and all men, those from God’s portion and those from the other portions, will serve as spectators when we contest for Christianity. Indeed, either the angels in heaven will cheer us on, and the floods will clap their hands together … or, may it not happen, the powers from below, which rejoice in evil, will cheer. EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 18.

ONLY HIS FREE GIFT. CHRYSOSTOM: But why does he call it an inheritance (or lot)? To show that by his own achievements no one obtains the kingdom, but as a lot is rather the result of good luck, so in truth it is the same principle here. For no one leads a life so good as to be counted worthy of the kingdom, but the whole is his free gift. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 2.

ONLY THE ELECT. AUGUSTINE: The lament in the Psalms, indeed, is absolutely true: “Behold in iniquity was I conceived, and in sins did my mother nourish me in her womb.” Again, there is what is written, that there is none clean in God’s sight, not even an infant whose life has lasted but a day on the earth. So these are the exception, and it is to exceed our limited human measure to wish to inquire about the rank they may deserve in that “lot of the saints in light” which is promised for the future. SERMONS 351.2.

AUGUSTINE: See, then, how it can come to pass that a man may have the baptism of Christ and still not have the faith or the love of Christ; how it is that he may have the sacrament of holiness and still not be reckoned in the lot of the holy. With regard to the mere sacrament itself, it makes no difference whether someone receives the baptism of Christ where the unity of Christ is not. SERMONS 8.2.

SHARING IN THE LOT OF THE SAINTS. CASSIODORUS: Moreover in writing to the Thessalonians he says: “Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light.” Since we read that many things in the Old and New Testaments were divided by lots, none has dared to deny that the lot has been God’s way of manifesting what devoted hearts sought with prayerful petition. EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 21.19.

1:13-14 | He Has Delivered and Transferred Us

FROM HIM AND THEN FROM US. CHRYSOSTOM: The whole is from him, the giving both of these things and of those; for no achievement finds its source in us. … Not then so as to deliver man from darkness only did he show his love toward him. It is a great thing indeed to have been delivered from darkness; but to have been brought into a kingdom too is far greater. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 2.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Because we share a likeness of nature with the man whom Christ assumed in the incarnation, we also share in his kingdom of love when we do good works as his adopted sons. COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS.

NOT THROUGH ANGELS. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Before the law and in the law the angels served God for our salvation, but God did not bring us to the kingdom through them. But now through our Lord, his only begotten Son, the kingdom is given to you. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

ONLY THROUGH CHRIST. THEODORET OF CYR: It was not the law but Christ the Lord, who bore the law, that has given us redemption through a saving baptism. When Paul said this, he also made a statement about God and showed him to be the maker of all things. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

AMBROSIASTER: Freed thus from the condition of darkness, that is, plucked from the infernal place, in which we were held by the devil both because of our own and because of Adam’s transgression, who is the father of sinners, we were translated by faith into the heavenly kingdom of the Son of God. This was so that he might show us by what love God loved us, when, raising us from deepest hell, he led us into heaven with his true Son. COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS.

FROM SIN TO GRACE. AUGUSTINE: From this power of evil angels nothing delivers man but the grace of God, of which the apostle speaks, “Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” Israel’s own story illustrates this figure, when they were delivered from the power of the Egyptians and translated into the kingdom of the land of promise flowing with milk and honey, which signifies the sweetness of grace. ON THE PSALMS 77.30.

AUGUSTINE: Because in Greek “to suffer” is paschein, for this reason Pascha has been thought of as a passion, as though this name has been derived from “suffering.” But in its own language, that is, in Hebrew, Pascha means a “passing over.” For this reason the people of God celebrated the Pascha for the first time when, fleeing from Egypt, they passed over the Red Sea. … And we effect a most salutary passing over when we pass over from the devil to Christ, and from this tottering world to his most solidly established kingdom. And therefore we pass over to God who endures so that we may not pass over with the passing world. Concerning this grace conferred upon us, the apostle, praising God, says, “Who has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us over into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” TRACTATES ON JOHN 55.1.

AUGUSTINE: “And he threw him,” says John, “into the abyss,” meaning, clearly, that he cast the devil into the abyss, and the “abyss” symbolizes the innumerable multitude of the impious, in whose hearts there is a great depth of malignity against the church of God. … Now because he is bound and shut up by this ban, the devil is prohibited and inhibited from leading astray the nations which belonged to Christ but were in time past led astray by him or held in his grip. For God chose those nations before the foundation of the world, to “rescue them from the power of darkness and transfer them to the kingdom of his beloved Son,” as the apostle says. CITY OF GOD 20.7.3.

LIVE YOUR BAPTISM! LEO THE GREAT: “Snatched from the powers of darkness” at such a great “price,” and by so great a “mystery,” and loosed from the chains of the ancient captivity, make sure, dearly beloved, that the devil does not destroy the integrity of your souls with any stratagem. Whatever is forced on you contrary to the Christian faith, whatever is presented to you contrary to the commandments of God, it comes from the deceptions of the one who tries with many wiles to divert you from eternal life, and, by seizing certain occasions of human weakness, leads careless and negligent souls again into his snares of death. Let all those reborn through water and the Holy Spirit consider the one whom they have renounced. SERMONS 57.5.1-2.