If ye continue in the faith
In the doctrine of faith which they had received and embraced;
and in the grace of faith, and the exercise of it which was
implanted in them; and in the profession of faith which they had
made: not that the virtue and efficacy of Christ's blood,
sufferings, and death, and reconciliation of their persons to God
thereby, depended upon their faith, and abiding in it; but that
faith and continuance in it were necessary means of their
presentation in unblemished holiness and righteousness; for if
they had not faith, or did not abide in it or if the good work of
grace was not wrought upon their souls, and that performed until
the day of Christ, they could not be presented holy and
blameless: this shows the necessity of the saints' final
perseverance in faith and holiness, and is mentioned with this
view, to put them upon a concern about it, and to make use of all
means, under divine grace, to enjoy it; and nothing could more
strongly incline and move unto it, than the blessed effect of
Christ's death, reconciliation and the end of it, to present the
reconciled ones blameless; in order to which it is necessary they
should hold on and out to the end: hence the Ethiopic version
reads the words, not as a condition, but as an exhortation
enforced by what goes before; "therefore be ye established in the
faith": it follows,
grounded and settled;
not on the sandy foundation of man's own righteousness, and peace
made by his own performances; but upon the foundation and rock,
Christ, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail; and so
shall never finally and totally fall away, being rooted and built
up in him, and established in the faith of him, in the doctrines
of faith, respecting peace by his blood, justification by his
righteousness, and life by his death; and so continue steadfast
and immovable, always abounding in his work:
and [be] not moved away from the hope of the
Gospel;
the hope of eternal life and happiness, which as set before us in
the Gospel; which that gives a good and solid ground and
foundation of, in the person, blood, and righteousness of Christ;
and is the instrumental means, in the hand of the Spirit, of
begetting to it, and of encouraging and increasing it: the law
gives no hopes of eternal life to a poor sinner; it works wrath,
and ministers death; there is nothing but a fearful looking for
of judgment by it; but the Gospel encourages to hope in the Lord,
from the consideration of rich mercy and plenteous redemption in
him; and this hope of the Gospel is an anchor of the soul, sure
and steadfast, and not to be let go; this confidence and
rejoicing of the hope is to be kept firm unto the end:
which ye have heard;
that is, which Gospel they had heard from Epaphras their faithful
minister, and that not only externally, but internally; they had
heard it and believed it, and it had brought forth fruit in them;
for it came to them not in word only, but in power; which is said
in commendation of it, and to engage them to continue in it, and
abide by it; as is also what follows:
[and] which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven;
and therefore since it was the same which was everywhere
preached, they might depend upon the truth of it, should have the
greater value for it, and by no means relinquish it. This must be
understood not of every individual creature, even human and
rational, that was then, or had been in, the world; but that it
had been, and was preached far and near, in all places all over
the world, to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews; who are
sometimes styled "every creature", "the creature", "the whole
creation", "all men" see ( Mark 16:15 ) ( Romans
8:19-22 ) ( Titus 2:11 ) ; and of
this, the first preaching of the Gospel by Peter after our Lord's
resurrection, was an emblem and pledge, ( Acts
2:14-36 ) ; and some time after that, the sound of all the
apostles went into all the earth, and their words to the end of
the world:
whereof I Paul am made a minister;
by Jesus Christ, who appeared unto him, and called, qualified,
and sent him forth as such; and this is mentioned to encourage
the Colossians to abide by the truths of the Gospel, since what
they had heard and received were what were everywhere preached by
the faithful ministers of the word; and particularly by the
apostle, who was ordained to be a teacher and preacher of it to
the Gentiles. The Alexandrian copy reads, "a preacher and an
apostle, and a minister"; see ( 1 Timothy
2:7 ) .
