colossians 3:2 commentarycolossians 3:2 commentary

Not only did he preach the one and teach the other (which the others no doubt did too), but he has committed to inspired writings the gospel as none other did; and he has, alone of all, brought out the church in the fullest way. We must make heaven our scope and aim, seek the favour of God above, keep up our communion with the upper world by faith, and hope, and holy love, and make it our constant care and business to secure our title to and qualifications for the heavenly bliss. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead.". And so he mentions particularly others, even if some little felt this link. 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. But beside the rod keep an apple to give him when he does well.". He was proverbially the savage, who terrorized the civilized world with his bestial atrocities. The sexual appetite was regarded as a thing to be gratified, not to be controlled. Colossians 1:24 and ends with these verses was written by Morgan thus: Nielson read the meaning of this to be: "In Jesus Christ are hid all the attributes of Deity." Guthrie's significant analysis of these two verses is: If a man says he abides in Christ then he ought to be walking as Christ walked. You're His servant. There is a kind of person who is the slave of his passions (palkos) and who is driven by the desire for the wrong things (epithumia, G1939) . And the tragedy is that many people have become so habituated to unclean talk that they are unaware that they are using it. He puts off his old self and puts on a new self, just as the candidate for baptism puts off his old clothes and puts on the new white robe. Nor is there to be unwatchfulness, but consideration in love of those without. Even antichrists are not from without in their origin. Thus the mystery includes, first, Christ as Head above, we though here being united by the Holy Ghost to Him glorified. We must acquaint ourselves with them, esteem them above all other things, and lay out ourselves in preparation for the enjoyment of them. Indeed, the trappings which men so cry up are a positive hindrance to Christ; and in the precise measure in which they are prized, they reduce their votaries to slavery, and the faith they profess to zero. Colossians 3 I. Thus the striving of the apostle was by no means only in the way of evangelizing. The idea here is similar to the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. In his pre-Christian days Joad could write: "Birth control (he meant the use of contraceptives) increases the possibilities of human pleasure. There Jew or Gentile is all alike, and those who believe the gospel are by the Spirit united to Him as His body, Here the Gentiles in particular have Him in them, the pledge of their participating in His heavenly glory by and by. Do not lie to one another. The expression "brethren," though of course flowing from Christ, brings forward their relationship by grace to each other. This may seem a strong statement, and I wonder at none feeling surprised, till they have rigidly examined it with the scriptures; for probably no one could believe it unless he had proved its truth. Of course the Ephesian saints were so; but here it is expressed. "Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." He judges everything in the light of the Cross and in the light of the love which gave itself for him. If there was one thing the ancient world needed it was mercy. If a divine person was pleased to appear here below, and to bring in unimagined goodness and power, dealing with every need and every one with whom He came in contact, and who sought or even accepted His gracious action, it might have been supposed that man could not resist such unhesitating love and unmeasured power. The life of the Christian is hid with Christ in God. 1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Archippus was to take heed to the ministry he had received in the Lord. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Proud, fallen nature is satisfied even by these efforts to put down the body; whereas God would have the body to have a certain honour in its own place, and that of the Christian is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And this is the truth that is so offensive to flesh in every form. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Before we study the list in detail, we must note two very significant things. It influenced him deeply and habitually in all the anxieties of love. Thus the fact of prying into that which God has not revealed, and man has not seen, such as speculations about angels, is the patent proof that the heart is not really satisfied with its portion. The story goes that a French merchant purchased an enormous 112-3/16-carat diamond. They have undoubtedly taught that which is consistent with it and even supposes it. 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.". Paul goes on to list some of the things which the Colossians must cut right out of life. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God ( Colossians 3:2-3 ). May He make and keep us faithful! Such is the basis of the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free. Just when he got level with us he tripped up and fell flat on his face. (ii) It destroyed the barriers which came from ceremonial and ritual. 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. In Colossians 3:4 Paul gives to Christ one of the great titles of devotion. As to the Jewish rites and feasts that some were endeavouring to re-impose, take for an instance the Sabbath, which is the stronger, because it was from the beginning of the first man, yet unfallen, and of course long before the Jewish people. This is the kind of peak of devotion which we can only dimly understand and only haltingly and imperfectly express. Our head is there, our home is there, our treasure is there, and we hope to be there for ever. Look busy." We want them to get all A's. Note well again that it is not here man striving to become dead, which is a notion unknown to the revelation of God, new or old. 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. "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing here into heaven, this same Jesus is going to come again" ( Acts 1:11 ). Thus it is that He rises into a new condition, leaving behind that which had fallen under vanity or death through its sinning chief, the first Adam. The mystery is now revealed, even the relation of Christ and the church; the actual testimony of God's counsels in Christ to those who compose His body. The foundation of the apostles and prophets took in the New Testament writers in general. The essence of idolatry is, in fact, the desire to have more. Now, as we had mentioned when we were going though Ephesians, God gave very simple rules for marriage. But so it is. ", How good as well as vast the mind of the Spirit of God! Without Him all sinks at once into dissolution. B. Lightfoot reminds us that one of the greatest tributes paid to Christianity was paid not by a theologian but by a master linguist. Colossians 3:2 (ISV) Verse Thoughts There is a reason that Paul is calling those that are born of the Spirit to keep their hearts and minds focussed on heavenly things and not on earthy pursuits and interests. 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. So again by Him alone do all, Jews and Gentiles, draw near to the Father. It is plain that however blessed this is, still it supposes wants, and a measure of weakness, and this for the ordinary walk of the Christian; that they might "walk worthy of the Lord," says he. It lies at the bottom when we think of the wants of the saints of God here below. (ii) It is most significant to note that every one of the graces listed has to do with personal relationships between man and man. 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. In short, the only reason we can even obey the commands in Colossians 3:1-2 is because we are now positionally dead to the world and its magnetic attractions. THE UNIVERSALITY OF CHRISTIANITY ( Colossians 3:9 b-13). It is not a mere duty that has to be done; but the heart is in presence of the objective fact that He died for us, His body. Half sobbing, he heaved himself up and began to march off dazedly in the wrong direction. The maimed and the sickly went to the wall. Set your affection on things above . It was in no wise the old thing, elevated by the glory of Him who had deigned to descend into it, but a new state of things, of which the risen Christ is both the Head and beginning; as it is said, "Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.". The most cursory reader discerns at once that the epistle to the Colossians is the counterpart of that to the Ephesians. This is truth about them; and He who is the truth told it out. He only is the constitutive power of the unity that we are exhorted to keep. The needed and only remedy was to turn the eyes of the saints from other objects, even their own privileges, and to fix them on Christ. Matthew Henry :: Commentary on Colossians 3 Chapter 3 I. . What believers must do now, enabled by the Holy Spirit, is to fight the good fight of faith by focusing upward rather than downward and "around-ward". And in us, poor feeble souls, why should not this peace rule in our hearts, to the which also we are called in one body? ". Knowledge and faith make a soul rich. So the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Him. An *apostle also teaches about Jesus. Philosophy is an idol of man or nature, a blind substitute for the knowledge of God. They are not indeed to reign with Him: this was by no man and at no time promised to them. Things which the world thought important, he will no longer worry about. Through Christ they have life directly in God. It is remarkable that the two well-known and standing institutions I will not call them ordinances of Christianity, baptism and the Lord's supper, are the plain and certain expression of death in grace. It is easy to distort the truth; an alteration in the tone of voice or an eloquent look will do it; and there are silences which can be as false and misleading as any words. There is then a healthful progress in the Lord. The Greek looked down on the barbarian; and to the Greek any man who did not speak Greek was a barbarian, which literally means a man who says "bar-bar." (2.) ", It is no use denying the plain truth "when ye lived in them;" it is blessed to know that we are dead now. [Note: Lightfoot, p. If we live a life of Christian purity and devotion now, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory,Colossians 3:4; Colossians 3:4. Little did the Colossians conceive that their endeavour to add to the truth of the gospel was in reality to detract from His glory. Philosophy, on the contrary, made matters worse, as indeed did the resources of human religion. CSB Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. If it is the desire for a person, it leads to sexual sin. The answer is important, for in it there is the whole Christian doctrine of work. The apostle will not sanction such an amalgam, but refuses it; and we must remember that in these exhortations it was the Lord acting by the Spirit in His servant. Love is the binding power which holds the whole Christian body together. Jesus emerged. In the which you also walked sometime, when you lived in them. His glory is in heaven. It is in baptism rather than in Him. Under Jewish law a woman was a thing, the possession of her husband, just as much as his house or his flocks or his material goods. Long ago Aristotle had defined praotes as the happy mean between too much and too little anger. I know he is, because I don't know if he loves me or not." And so, are you walking after the Spirit? Their desire, we may be sure, was as well meant as any mistake can be. In this we have what the Spirit occupies Himself with as sent down from heaven. In classical Greek there is no word for humility which has, not some tinge of servility; but Christian humility is not a cringing thing. 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.

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