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Introduction (1–3a). The Apostle's doctrinal instructions (3b-29). Col.1:1. Paul, by the will of God an Apostle of Jesus Christ, and Timothy brother, Ap. sends a blessing to the Colossians from himself and from Timothy. This blessing is similar in form to Rom 1:1, 7 and even more so to 1 Cor 1:1–2. – “Timothy” – see Acts 16:1, and Phil 2:20, 22. Col. 1:2. To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ Jesus who are at Colosse: Col. 1:3. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you, Ap. says that the state of faith and life of the Colossian Christians makes a gratifying impression on the observer, Epaphras told him about this (Col 1:3-8). Ap. prays that the Colossians would be even more perfect in Christian life and knowledge ( Col. 1:9–11 ) and thanks God for the work He has completed of our salvation ( Col. 1:12–14 ) and vividly depicts the greatness of the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. In order to cut off for the Colossian heretics any opportunity to deceive the Colossian Christians with their teaching about the eons, which are supposedly equal to Christ, Ap. reveals the teaching about Christ as God, without relation to His incarnation (Col. 1:15–17), and then as the God-man (Col. 1:18–20), while recalling that the Colossians also owe their salvation to Christ (Col. 1:21–23). At the conclusion of the first chapter of Ap. expresses a view of his suffering, which he suffers as a preacher of Christianity. He talks about these sufferings because the Colossians, like other Christians, will always enjoy their fruits (Col. 1:24-29). Col.1:4. Having heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all saints, Col. 1:5. in hope of the things prepared for you in heaven, which you have heard before in the true word of the gospel, Col. 1:6. which abides among you, as it does throughout the whole world, and bears fruit, and increases, as it did among you, from the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, Col.1:7. just as we learned from Epaphras, our beloved colleague, Christ’s faithful servant to you, Col.1:8. who informed us of your love in spirit. Ap. thanks God for the fact that the Colossians maintain faith in Jesus Christ and love for all believers, that they have hope for future heavenly bliss (prepared for - see 1 Peter 1:4). - “In the true word of the gospel.” Ap. This confirms the authority of the enlighteners of the Colossians with the light of the Gospel: these enlighteners told them the correct concepts about Christianity... - “As in the whole world.” Wanting to expose the greatness of true Christianity and the insignificance of the Colossian false teaching, Apostle. says that the faith of Christ has already spread throughout the whole world and is bearing good fruits everywhere, attracting more and more new confessors (“increasing”). The main educator of the Colossians is Epaphras, a colleague of the Apostle Paul: he contributed greatly to the correct Christian development of the Colossian Christians. - “Love in the spirit.” Here we speak about the love of the Colossians for Paul (their love for Christians in general is already spoken of in the 4th article). This love has its support in the Holy Spirit and therefore is firm and unfeigned. Col.1:9. Therefore, from the day we heard about this, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, Col. 1:10. so that they act worthy of God, pleasing Him in everything, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, Col. 1:11. being strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, with all patience and forbearance with joy, Since a good foundation has already been laid in Colossians, Ap. Now he prays to God that the Colossians can go further in their Christian development. Ap. wants them to be fulfilled by the “knowledge” of the will of God (έπίγνωοις - perfect, complete knowledge cf. Rom. 1:28), which is achieved through all wisdom (σοφία), which, as a theoretical ability, accurately determines the goal with which a person should strive, and through spiritual understanding (σύνεσις - moral tact) or the ability to choose pure and completely suitable means to achieve a goal. Full knowledge of the will of God is necessary so that we can draw closer to our Father God, be pleasing to Him, and through this moral improvement grow in the knowledge of God, expand our Christian worldview (Christian life and Christian knowledge in this way, according to the Apostle, help each other develop). But since a Christian can draw strength for his moral improvement only in God, then the Colossians must seek reinforcement from God, strengthen themselves with His gracious help in “patience” - before great temptations and in “magnanimity” - more correctly: in long-suffering - before prolonged ones. Col. 1:12. giving thanks to God the Father, who has called us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, This verse and the following ones depend on the words of Col. 1:9: “we do not cease to pray.” Ap. Together with prayer for the Colossians, he unites gratitude to God and the Father. – “Who called” – more precisely: who made capable, suitable (Ικανωσαντι). – “Us” – Christians in general. – “To participate” more precisely: to a part (εις τ. μερίδα). Every Christian is destined to receive his own special portion of blessedness in the kingdom of glory or common inheritance (τοῦ κλήρου). – “Saints” – Christians in general. - “In the light”, - that is, illuminated by the light of Christ. Col. 1:13. who delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, God delivered us from the power of darkness or Satan and introduced us, or more precisely: rearranged us, transplanted us into a new area - into the Kingdom of Christ. Ap. obviously means here a plant that at first grows very poorly in the dark, and then develops in all its glory when transplanted into the sun. - “To the Kingdom”, - i.e. to the Church. – “Son of the Beloved” – more precisely: the Son of His love. It will give birth. origin, indicating the birth of the Son of God from the being of God the Father (Mukhin). Col. 1:14. in whom we have redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins, Col. 1:15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the first begotten of all creation; The false teachers of Colossus relegated Christ to the category of created beings, and the Apostle, in refutation of such a view of Christ, depicts Him here as “the image of the invisible God.” Man is also the image of God (Genesis 1:26), but Christ is the prototype, in no way different from the essence of the Father, in other words, the Consubstantial Son of God (the very word είκών, as explained by John Chrysostom, indicates complete, perfect similarity with the Father). - “Invisible”. From this we must conclude that Ap. means Christ also as “invisible”, in the state before His incarnation. “If God is invisible, then His image is also invisible, because otherwise He would not be an image” (Chrysostom) 1. - “Begotten first of all creation.” If Christ was born and, therefore, existed before creation began to exist, then it means that He is eternal, He is God. Col. 1:16. For by Him all things were created, that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible: whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers - all things were created by Him and for Him; Eternity of Christ Ap. proves in particular by the fact that everything was created in Christ, i.e. in Him (ἐν αὐτῷ) the whole world was contained from eternity in its potential existence. – “Created” – έκτίσθη – at one certain moment, created as a completely complete whole... – “Are they thrones”... Since the false teachers of Colossus placed Christ along with the angels, the Apostle here especially notes the fact that the angels, starting from the highest (“thrones”) and ending with the lowest (“powers”) 2 were also created by Christ. – “All by Him” – δι᾿ αὐτοῦ. Christ appears here as the mediator through whom everything that exists was created. - “It was created for Him,” that is, it was created in such a way that He contains everything in His power, provides for everything (εις αυτόν). “Created” – έκτισται – past. owls a time to signify that Christ's relationship with the created world continues. Col. 1:17. and He is before all things, and by Him all things stand. Since Christ is the Creator of everything, everything finds support in Him. Ap., thus, repeats the thought expressed in the two previous verses, so that it is more firmly imprinted in the minds of readers who were confused by false teachers. Col. 1:18. And He is the head of the body of the Church; He is the firstfruits, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence: Now the Apostle portrays Christ as the God-man. Here He appears, first of all, as the head of the Church (see Eph 1:22–23). Ap. explains why Christ became the head of the Church: He is the firstfruits in general or the beginning of everything (αρχή) and, in particular, the firstborn from the dead (see 1 Cor. XV:20, 23). – “In everything” – that is, in all respects. Col. 1:19. For it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell in Him, Why does Christ take precedence everywhere? Because in Him, by divine grace, dwells all the fullness of the Divinity... - “Dwelled” - κατοικήσαι constantly abided. – “Fullness” – το πλήρωμα – a word used by the Kolossian false teachers. But then how do they, maybe. following the Essene view, they imagined this fullness as angels who express the fullness of the divine being (they included Christ among these expressors). The Apostle says that Christ contains in Himself the entire fullness of the Divinity alone. Col. 1:20 . and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having pacified through Him, through the Blood of His cross, both earthly and heavenly. “Through Him,” that is, because Christ contains in Himself the fullness of the Divinity, He was chosen in the council of St. Trinity to complete the work of our salvation. - “Reconcile”. The enmity of the creature against God (God Himself is not at enmity with anyone) consisted in the fact that the creation did not submit to the will of God. - “Both earthly and heavenly.” And the angels turned away from us due to our great wickedness (Theodoret) and therefore they had to be reconciled with people. - “Blood of the cross”, i.e. shed on the cross. – Him – more correctly: through Him. Ap. wants to once again impress upon the Colossians that people were saved precisely through Christ, and not through angels, who, according to the interpretation of false teachers, were the only mediators between God and the world. Col. 1:21. And you, who were once alienated and enemies, by your disposition to evil deeds, Col. 1:22. has now reconciled you in the body of His flesh by His death, that He might present you holy and blameless and blameless before Him, In particular, the Colossians were deemed worthy to receive salvation from Christ (cf. Eph 2:12–13). - “In the Body of Flesh”. The Colossian false teachers insisted that the reconciliation of people with God was accomplished by incorporeal angelic forces. Ap. therefore, it indicates with special force that the salvation of people was accomplished in the fleshly body of Christ, in which He died for the sins of people. – “Holy and blameless” – see Eph 1:4. Col. 1:23 . if you remain strong and steadfast in the faith, and do not lose heart in the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, have become a minister. In order to be saved completely, and to withstand the terrible judgment of God, the Colossians must stand unshakably among all the temptations of earthly life, bearing in mind, as a beacon of salvation, the Christian hope for future bliss with Christ. To confirm them in the faith, Ap. reminds them that this faith is spreading throughout the entire universe and that he, Paul, is its minister or preacher. Col. 1:24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you and make up for the deficiency in my flesh of the sorrows of Christ for His Body, which is the Church, To instill in the Colossians even greater respect for the faith they accepted, Apostle. says that he even became a voluntary sufferer for all the pagans. He is fully convinced that the Gospel he brings is necessary for them as the only, undoubtedly saving, truth. - “I make up for the lack of the sorrows of Christ in my flesh.” Christ has completed the work of our redemption once and for all. But He had not yet drunk the whole cup of insults (θλίψεις) from people, since He did not come into contact with the pagans. He himself did not preach the Gospel to the pagans. Now such a preacher, continuing the work of spreading the Gospel among the pagans, is Ap. Paul, and his suffering, which he suffers from the pagans, is a continuation of those insults that Christ endured during His earthly life from the Jews. - “For His Body,” i.e., so that Christ would thus receive a complete body or a complete Church. The basis of Paul's thought here is the idea that every Christian must endure a certain amount of suffering as a follower of Christ (Acts 14:22). Most of all such suffering, and suffering precisely for the good of the Church, went to Ap. Pavel. He has endured a lot of suffering, but he feels that he needs to drink this cup of suffering to the very bottom (“I am replenishing” - άνταναπληρώ). Col. 1:25 . of whom I became a minister according to the economy of God entrusted to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, Col. 1:26. a mystery hidden from ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints, That it was he, Paul, and not anyone else, who must drain what remained in the cup of Christ’s sorrows, the Apostle proves by the fact that it was he who became the preacher of salvation for the pagans according to the will of God (“according to the economy of God”). - “To fulfill”, that is, to make complete through widespread dissemination, to complete the work of Christian preaching or the Word of God (cf. Rom 15:19) - “The Mystery” ... see Eph. 3:9 and Eph. 3:5. - “Saints”, i.e. Christians. Col. 1:27. to whom God has been pleased to show what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The fact that the pagans heard the preaching of the Gospel depended not on their merits, but on God’s favor. At the same time, God was pleased to explain to them what the height and importance of the mystery he proclaimed was. They are given to understand that the highest wealth that a person can hope for, namely Christ Himself, abides in them, is internally present in them, and this gives them confidence in the future final glorification: in Christ is the guarantee of our future glory (instead of “which” should be read: “which”, i.e. wealth). Col. 1:28. whom we preach, admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; Col. 1:29. for which I labor and strive through His power, which powerfully works in me. It is this Christ that Paul and his co-workers preach, striving to bring Christians to perfection. Ap says this. in order for the Colossians not to be carried away by the teachings of heretics, but to listen and remember only the teaching that they received through Epaphras. – “I’m working” – κσπιώ – a designation of hard work. “I strive” - αγωνιζόμενος denotes both the external and internal struggle that the Apostle had to wage. “By power”... Here is an allusion to the miracles that God gave him the power to perform (Acts 19:11-12). Rev. Theophanes says: “and in the incarnation of God the Word, the invisible Deity did not become visible, but only his presence became, as it were, tangibly cognizable, but still mentally, and not visible.” In his other messages, Ap. Paul numbers the ranks of the heavenly hierarchy differently. Thus, in the letter to the Ephesians, he puts in first place the “beginnings,” which are here placed at the very end (Eph. 1:21: cf. Eph. 3:10). In the patristic works there is also a difference in the listing of angelic ranks. Ephraim the Syrian, for example, divides the angels into ten ranks. Basil of Seleucia counts seven of them, and Dionysius the Areopagite - nine: 1) thrones, cherubim, seraphim, 2) authorities, dominions, powers, 3) angels, archangels and principles. The latter division is also accepted by the Orthodox Church. You might be interested in: