c

which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Gal. i. 3.

2. "From God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." So N, A., C., F., G., most Cursives, f, g, Copt., Arm., Æth.; but B., D., E., K., L., 17, 39, 46, 109, 115, 177, 178, 219, 238, d, e, Vulg. (Cod. Amiat.), Syriac, omit "and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Colosse." The "saints" marks out Christians as persons dedicated to God and set apart for His service; the "faithful brethren " seems to indicate their joint belief in the Son of God, and brotherly love amongst themselves. Wesley says, "Saints'-this word expresses their union with God, and brethren,' this their union with their fellow Christians."

"From God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." The reader, by referring to the critical note, will see that the words "from the Lord Jesus Christ" are not contained in five of the principal Uncials, B, D, E, K, L, but are contained in N, A, C, F, G. Origen notices the omission. "To the Colossians indeed, (he says) 'Grace to you and peace from God our Father,' and does not add, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.'" And Chrysostom also, "Whence cometh grace to you? Whence peace? From God, he says, our Father, although he useth not in this place the Name of Christ."

Seeing that in every other epistle grace is invoked conjointly from Christ and God, this omission gives a singularly unfinished character to the prayer here. Theological reasons have been assigned for this omission, one being expressed as follows: "Could it have been suggested to St. Paul's mind in connection with his special desire to emphasize the true Godhead of Christ, so obvious in this epistle, by an instinctive reluctance to use in this case any phrase, however customary with him, which might even seem to distinguish His nature from the Godhead?" (Bishop Barry.) But may not a simpler reason be assigned? We are told by almost every commentator on this Epistle, that compared with others it presents decided marks of roughness and want of finish in the style, as if it had been written in greater haste. May not this most unique omission be a case in point?

3. "We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying," &c. St. Paul in this, and at the beginning of every epistle, puts thanksgiving before prayer, and the reason is obvious. In every epistle he writes to churches which had been

CHAP. I.]

d

PRAYING ALWAYS FOR YOU.

13

3 We give thanks to God and the Father of 1 Cor. i. 4. our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

e

4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

Eph. i. 16.
Phil. i. 3. &
iv. 6.
e ver. 9. Eph.
i. 15. Philem.5.

f Heb. vi. 10.

3. "To God and the Father of," i.e. "To the God and Father of." So N, A., E., K., L., P., all Cursives, f, Vulg., Arm. ; but B., C., D., F., G., d, e, g, Syriac, Copt., Æth., read, "To God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

4. "Which ye have." So N, A., C., D., E., F., G., P., most Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Copt.; but B. omits.

gathered out from among the heathen by astonishing acts of grace, and had, to the time of his writing, more or less steadfastly held fast their profession, and exhibited the reality of that profession by good works. He must consequently first give thanks for these tokens of grace in the past, as being pledges of help for the future.

"Praying always for you." Not merely mentioning hurriedly the names of each Church, but entering into particulars respecting the distinct spiritual requirements of each. Thus we have in each Epistle different prayers, and if we knew their spiritual state as God knew it, we should find that in the case of each particular Church its spiritual state was known to the Apostle, and he was led to plead with God accordingly.

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4. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which," &c. "Your faith in Christ Jesus." We are told that the preposition here denotes the sphere in which their faith moves, rather than the object to which it is directed; but surely the working of faith in the Person of Christ as the Eternal Son of the Ruler of the Universe, is an astonishing miracle when we consider what the state of mind of any Colossian or any other heathen was before the Gospel came to him. He embraced the belief that the world was redeemed by the Blood of a crucified Jew, and the Resurrection from the dead of the same Jew was the pledge that not only was the Redemption complete, but that instead of at the best a dreamy surmise respecting the immortality of his soul, he was assured that he should live for ever in a spirit united to a glorified body, raised up in the likeness of the Body of the Son of God.

It seems a miracle of power and grace that an ordinary heathen mind should have been able to entertain such an idea, much more to embrace it, and conform his outer and inner life to its spirit.

5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, 2 Tim. iv. 8. whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

1 Pet. i. 4.

And so St. Paul may well give thanks that the Colossian Christians should have laid aside heathenism, and acknowledged Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and ascended, to be the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.

"And of the love which ye have to all the saints." Next to the astonishing miracle of the implantation in heathen minds of such a faith was the appearance in the world of the new brotherhood, knitted together in the bonds of a love never before known or even imagined in this world of hate and lust. This love was first of all love to the Crucified-without this it could not have existed-and then love to those who loved Him; so that discipleship was manifested by love. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one towards another" (John xiii. 35).

5. "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven." Some interpret this as if the faith and the love were the products of the hope but surely this is inverting the order of things: there must first come the faith of the Gospel, or the hope which rises directly out of the facts of the Gospel (especially the Resurrection) could have no root. Christians hope for that future blessedness which the Gospel assures to them, because the Gospel is the Revelation of that Risen Lord Who said, "Because I live, ye shall live also." We think then, notwithstanding great names, that the hope must follow upon "We give thanks; " it is as if he said, "Hearing of your faith and love, we thank God that these graces will not be ineffectual, but that you have the assured hope that you will be rewarded for what ye do and endure."

But what is "the hope laid up for you in heaven"? It is the hope of the resurrection of your bodies, changed after the likeness of Christ's glorious Body. This hope is laid up in heaven because Christ is there, and "our life is hid with Christ in God," so that "when He shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (iii. 3, 4). The hope can be no other than this, for this is, in its very nature, the highest hope that any human being can have.

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Whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel."

CHAP. I.]

THE GRACE OF GOD IN TRUTH.

h

as it is in all the

6 Which is come unto you, world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

k

6. "Unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit." So E**, F., G., K., L., most Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syriac; but N, A., B., C., D., E*, P., a few Cursives (10), Copt., Arm., Æth. (omitting xaì), read, "Coming unto you as it is in all the world, bringing forth fruit." After "bringing forth fruit," N, A., B., C., D., E., F., G., L., P., and eighty Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., &c., read, "and increasing."

"Ye heard of this hope when the Gospel was first preached to you, for the Gospel which Epaphras preached was the same as mine, that Christ died, and was buried, and rose again, and if Christ be risen from the dead, He is risen as the first-fruits, and so 'as in Adam all die, even in Christ shall all be made alive.'

This was the first form in which the Gospel was preached, as we learn from 1 Corinth. xv. 1-10.

6. "Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit." The more probable reading is followed by the Revisers," which is come unto you, even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as it doth in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth." If so rendered, the hyperbole is avoided, or at least softened, for what the Apostle seems to assert is not the absolute presence of the Gospel everywhere, but that wherever it is present it bears fruit and increases.

We are to remember that the Apostle never speaks of all the world as meaning the whole habitable globe as known to us; but if the Gospel was preached as far south as Ethiopia by the eunuch, the treasurer of Candace, and north by himself at the shores of the Black Sea and Illyricum, and also at Rome and Gaul, and in Mesopotamia, he would look upon it as no exaggeration to say that it was preached to the whole world.

And wherever it is preached it bears fruit and increases. It bears the fruits of righteousness and holiness amongst those who have received it, and it adds to its number by making converts of the surrounding heathen.

"Since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth." It would seem from this, that as soon as they heard the preaching of the Gospel they received it in sincere belief.

who is for

7 As ye also learned of 'Epaphras our dear fellowservant, m you a faithful minister of Christ; 8 Who also declared unto us your "love in the

1 ch. iv. 12. Philem. 23.

m 2 Cor. xi. 23. 1 Tim. iv. 6.

n Rom. xv. 30. 。 Eph. i. 15,

16.

ver. 3, 4.

p 1 Cor. i. 5.

q Rom. xii. 2. Eph. v. 10, 17.

Spirit.

9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge

7. "Also" (xai) omitted by &, A., B., C., D., F., G., P., d, e, f, g, Vulg., Goth., Syriac; retained by E., K., L., and most Cursives.

"For you." So C., E., K., L., P., most Cursives, d, e, f, Vulg., Goth., Syriac, Copt., Arm., Æth.; but N, A., B., D., F., G., 3, 13, 33, 43, 52, 80, 91, 109, read “for us.”

7. "As ye also learned of Epaphras." Epaphras appears, from this notice of him, to have been the first Evangelist of Colosse. St. Paul here calls him his fellow-servant; the only instance in which he uses the word. He is mentioned elsewhere in Col. iv. 12, and in Philemon 23, as St. Paul's fellow-prisoner in Jesus Christ. Antiquity represents him as Bishop of Colosse. This is denied, or at least doubted, by modern writers; but after the Apostle's death he would, if he had continued connected with the Church, have undoubtedly been its chief governor, for how could another have been put over the head of this fellow-servant and fellow-prisoner of the Apostle, his intimate friend, who knew all his mind? Such an one could be trusted to carry on the Apostolic government.

8. "Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit." He declared the Gospel to you, and brought me back the welcome news of its success, in that it bore within you the fruit of love, the first grace of the Holy Spirit.

9. "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray," &c. He now begins to tell them what his prayer was on their behalf, but first he lets them know that it was no new thing that he should pray for them. first hearing of their faith and love. -he had prayed for them during many years, and that without ceasing.

He had done this from his "Since the day we heard it"

"And to desire." Rather to ask, to entreat. His desire expressed itself in the words which follow.

"That ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom," &c. "With the knowledge," rather, with the thorough, or