According to history, the influence of Gnostic teaching, which included Greek philosophy, invaded the Gentile churches in Paul's time. Hence, the apostle told the Colossians that all the treasures of genuine wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. This is the spiritual wisdom and knowledge of the divine economy concerning Christ and the church. Wisdom is related to our spirit, and knowledge is related to our mind (Eph. 1:8, 17).
In order for believers to be deluded, or carried off as spoil, something close to the truth, such as philosophy, must be used to deceive them. If we have a clear vision of Christ as the center of God's economy, no one will be able to delude us (v. 8). If we take Christ as life (Col. 3:4), hold Him as the Head of the Body (v. 19), know Him as the mystery of God (v. 2), experience Him as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and walk in Him as the all-inclusive Spirit (Col. 2:6), we will not be deceived by anything or anyone.
We should beware of persuasive speech and of eloquence. A speaker may be very persuasive and very eloquent, but the reality of Christ may not be in his persuasive and eloquent speech.
The human spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Lit., into.
Christ is the allotted portion of the saints (Col. 1:12) for their enjoyment. To believe into Him is to receive Him. As the all-inclusive Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), He enters into us and dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) to be everything to us.
As we have received Christ, we should walk in Him. Here to walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being. We should walk, live, and act in Christ that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce. The good land today is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit (Gal. 3:14), who dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16) to be our enjoyment. To walk according to this Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16) is the central and crucial point in the New Testament.
Like plants, we are living organisms. As such, we have been rooted in Christ, our soil, our earth, that we may absorb all His riches as nourishment. These riches become the element and substance with which we grow and are built up. To be rooted is for the growth in life. This rooting has been completed already. To be built up is for the building of the Body of Christ. This is still going on. Both these matters are in Christ.
In the faith here means in our faith, the subjective faith by which we believe.
This refers to Gnostic teaching, a mixture of Jewish, oriental, and Greek philosophies, which is an empty deceit.
Tradition is related to culture and has its source in culture. The source of the Gnostic teaching at Colossae was the tradition of men; it was based not on the revealed writings of God but on the traditional practices of men.
The same expression, elements of the world, is used in Gal. 4:3 (see note Gal. 4:31b). Here it refers to the rudimentary teachings of both Jews and Gentiles, consisting of ritualistic observances regarding the eating of meats, drinking, washings, asceticism, and other matters.
Christ is the governing principle of all genuine wisdom and knowledge, the reality of all genuine teaching, and the only measure of all concepts acceptable to God. This book focuses on Christ as our everything.
Fullness refers not to the riches of God but to the expression of the riches of God. What dwells in Christ is not only the riches of the Godhead but the expression of the riches of what God is. See note Eph. 3:193c.
This refers to deity, which is different from the divine characteristics manifested by the created things (Rom. 1:20). This strongly indicates the deity of Christ. The fullness of the Godhead is versus the tradition of men and the elements of the world. The world's tradition and elements simply cannot be compared with the fullness of the Godhead.
This points to the physical body that Christ put on in His humanity, indicating that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ as One who has a human body. Before Christ's incarnation, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him as the eternal Word, but not bodily. From the time that Christ became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in Him in a bodily way; and in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21) now and forever it dwells.
The Greek word implies completion, perfection. Because all the fullness dwells in Him, after we have been put into Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), we are made full, filled up, with all the divine riches. Hence, we need no other source. Because Christ is our perfection and completion, we do not need other rules and authorities as objects of adoration, for He is the Head of all these. This is versus angel worship (v. 18).
The rule and authority here are the fallen angels occupying positions of power in the air in subordination to Satan. See note Col. 2:152a.
This is spiritual circumcision, the circumcision of Christ, referring to the proper baptism, which puts off the body of the flesh by the effectual virtue of the death of Christ. This is contrary to asceticism (vv. 20-22).
The circumcision that is the putting off of the body of the flesh was not made with hands; it was accomplished by the death of Christ, and it is applied, executed, and carried out by the powerful Spirit.
Putting off here means to strip off something, as one would strip off clothes.
To be buried in baptism is to put off, to strip off, the body of the flesh.
In baptism there is the aspect of burial, which is the termination of our flesh, and the aspect of raising, which is the germination of our spirit. In the aspect of raising, we are made alive in Christ with the divine life.
Faith is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God (2 Pet. 1:1). The more we turn to God and contact Him, the more faith we have. The Lord is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). The more we abide in Him, the more we are infused with Him as our faith. It is through this living faith produced by the operation of the living God that we experience the resurrection life, signified by the raising aspect of baptism.
Dead in spirit because of sin.
In Christ's resurrection, God enlivened us together by His divine life. This was accomplished in Christ's resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3) and is experienced through our faith.
The book of Ephesians concerns the mystery of Christ, which is the church, the Body (Eph. 3:4). This book concerns the mystery of God, which is Christ, the Head.
To be knit together in love involves the emotion, whereas to have the riches of the full assurance of understanding involves the mind. When our hearts have been comforted, we being knit together in love, and our minds function properly, we will have the full knowledge of Christ as the mystery of God.
The riches of the full assurance of understanding equal the full knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ.
The divine love that we have enjoyed and by which we love God's beloved. This love is the factor and element that knits the saints together.
To comfort people's hearts is to cherish people and lovingly warm them up, that they may be knit together unto the full assurance of understanding of the mystery of God.
Or, blotting out, obliterating, erasing, annulling (a decree of law).
A legal document, a bond. Here it refers to the written law.
Referring to the ordinances of the ceremonial law with its rituals, which are the forms or ways of living and worship. So also in vv. 20-21.
This is to abolish the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15). It kills the heresy of keeping the Judaic rituals.
Or, putting off, as in Col. 3:9. Verses Col. 2:13-15 unveil the economy of God's salvation:
1) to make us alive with Christ,
2) to abolish the ordinances of the ceremonial law,
3) to strip off the evil angelic powers.
God was busy while Christ's crucifixion was going on: He nailed the law on the cross and stripped off the rulers and authorities, that the way and the atmosphere might be cleared for us to enter into the participation in Christ.
These are the angelic rulers and authorities. Because at Colossae there was the heretical teaching of angel worship, the passage here must refer to the evil angels. The law was ordained through angels and was even considered to be ordinances of angels (Gal. 3:19; Acts 7:53). Based on this, the heresy at Colossae taught people to worship angels (v. 18) as mediators between God and man. The apostle dealt with this heresy by unveiling the fact that the law, consisting of ordinances, had been nailed to the cross (v. 14), and that the leading evil angels had been stripped off from God. This left Christ as the sole Mediator, who is the Head of all rule and authority (v. 10). This killed the heresy of angel worship.
Or, show, exhibit in the sense of an open shame. God openly shamed the evil angelic rulers and authorities on the cross and triumphed over them in it.
Or, in Him; referring to Christ. It refers to the cross.
Or, in food and in drink. Food and drink signify satisfaction and strengthening.
cf. Lev. 11:2; Rom. 14:2-3
Referring to the annual Jewish festivals, which signify joy and enjoyment.
Signifying a new beginning with light in the darkness.
Signifying completion and rest. Feasts are yearly, new moons monthly, Sabbaths weekly, and eating and drinking daily. Daily we eat and drink Christ, weekly we have completion and rest in Him, monthly we experience a new beginning in Him, and throughout the year He is our joy and enjoyment. Therefore, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly Christ is to us the reality of every positive thing, implying the universal extensiveness of the all-inclusive Christ.
All the aforementioned items of the ceremonial law are a shadow of the spiritual things in Christ, which are the things to come. But the body belongs to Christ and is Christ.
As with a man's physical body, the body here is the substance. And like the shadow of a man's body, the rituals in the law are a shadow of the real things in the gospel.
Christ is the reality of the gospel. All the good things in the gospel belong to Him and are Him. This book unveils such an all-inclusive Christ as the focus of God's economy.
The heretical teachers judged the saints unworthy to worship God directly and maintained that they had to approach Him through the mediation of angels. This was to defraud the saints of their prize, depriving them of the enjoyment of Christ. In Christ, our sole Mediator, we can worship God directly.
The heretical teachers of angel worship taught the saints to show lowliness in realizing that they were not worthy to worship God directly. They defrauded the saints of their prize in Christ in the element and sphere of such self-chosen lowliness and angel worship.
Or, looking into, investigating (secret things).
The heretical teachers lived in the realm of sight, in contrast to the faith mentioned in v. 12. They liked to have curious visions. Such insistence on visual experience resulted in fleshly pride, the vain puffing up by the mind set on the flesh.
Lit., the mind of his flesh.
The heresy of angel worship distracted the saints from holding Christ as the Head. God's economy is to head up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10) through His Body, the church, making Christ the center of all things. The subtle one's device is to carry the saints away and thus cause the Body of Christ to collapse.
The phrase out from whom indicates that the Body of Christ grows out from the Head, for all the supply comes from the Head.
The heresy caused the saints to be severed from the Head, and thus it damaged the Body. The apostle's revelation uplifted Christ and caused the Body to be safeguarded and built up.
Joints are for the supply of the Body.
Sinews are for the knitting together of the members of the Body.
Growing is a matter of life, which is God Himself. As the Body of Christ, the church should not be deprived of Christ, who is the embodiment of God as the source of life. By holding Christ, the church grows with the growth of God, with the increase of God as life.
The growth of the Body of Christ has nothing to do with doctrinal knowledge of the Bible, the way of worship, or any such matter. Rather, the growth of the Body depends on the growth of God, the increase of God's element, in the Body.
Or, since.
In baptism (Rom. 6:3).
The elements of the world are the elementary principles of outward, material things, the childish teachings of externalism, such as asceticism. This is altogether different from God's way, the way of the cross. See note Col. 2:83c.
These are ordinances, rules, and regulations concerning material things and deal with, respectively, things that move, things that are edible, and things that are tangible. Handling, tasting, and touching include virtually every kind of action, and the ordinances concerning them are related to the practice of asceticism.
Or, become corrupted. All material things are destined to decompose and perish through corruption when used (1 Cor. 6:13; Matt. 15:17).
Or, consumed.
The Greek word denotes a word or a saying; hence, expression, show of reason, and, therefore, a reputation.
This is asceticism.
The ordinances, rules, and regulations of the elementary teachings of externalism and asceticism are of no value in restraining the indulgence of the flesh.
