Colossians 1:8

8 which also showed to us your loving in Spirit.

Colossians 1:8 Meaning and Commentary

Colossians 1:8

Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
] Not only their love to God, and Christ, and to all the saints, which is before mentioned, but their love to the apostle; though they had only heard of him, and of his great capacity for, and faithfulness and usefulness in preaching of the Gospel, which had greatly endeared him to them. This, he says, was in the Spirit; it was spiritual love, to distinguish it from a carnal and worldly one; they loved him for the spiritual grace that was in him, the spiritual gifts bestowed on him, the spiritual service he was engaged in, and the spiritual usefulness he was of: or they loved him in, and with their spirits, with all their hearts, sincerely, and without dissimulation; and though they had never seen him in the flesh, yet being, as it were, present with him in spirit, their affections were knit unto him: or this their love was "in the Holy Spirit", as the Ethiopic version reads it; it was a fruit of the Spirit of God, which he had implanted in their hearts in regeneration, as is also love to God, and likewise to Christ.

Colossians 1:8 In-Context

6 that came to you, as also it is in all the world, and maketh fruit, and waxeth, as [it is] in you, from that day in which ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

7 As ye learned of Epaphras, our fellow most dear-worthy [our even-servant most dear-worthy], which is a true minister of Jesus Christ for you;

8 which also showed to us your loving in Spirit.

9 And therefore we from the day in which we heard, cease not to pray for you, and to ask, that ye be filled with the knowing of his will in all wisdom and ghostly understanding;

10 that ye walk worthily to God pleasing by all things, and make fruit in all good work, and wax in the science of God, [that ye walk worthily to God pleasing by all things, making fruit in all good work, and waxing in the science of God,]