Colossians 1

      13, 14. Who hath delivered us. The language implies that we were captive. We were under the power of darkness. Compare Luke 22:53 . Satan is the power of darkness. Those in sin are held under his power. Hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. God, through the gospel, had rescued them, and has translated them into Christ's kingdom. This was effected when they were converted. Some teach that Christ's kingdom is yet future, but this passage shows that it already had an existence. The church was its visible form. It was inaugurated on Pentecost. 14. In whom we have redemption. We are redeemed from sin. We were in bondage, but have been purchased. Satan holds us under bondage until our sins are blotted out. The price paid is his blood. Compare Eph. 1:7 .

      15-17. Who is the image of the invisible God. He came in order to reveal the Father in his own person. See John 14:10 and Heb. 1:3 . The love of God is revealed in Christ. He was the visible representative of the invisible God. The first-born of every creature. The thought is that he existed before creation began; born of God instead of being created by the divine fiat; born before any creature was called into existence. The passage does not say that he was the first created, but the first-born. He was before creation. See John 1:1 John 1:2 . 16. By him were all things created. Hence he must have existed before any creation. Compare John 1:3 and Heb. 1:2 . As God manifested himself by means of the Son in the gospel, so in creation he manifested himself through the Son. The visible universe is a manifestation of God through the Son. THE WORD is the power that gives all things existence that exist. Thrones, dominions, principalities. The angelic hierarchy; different ranks of angels, according to the teachings of some of the Jewish doctors. A heresy had already been proposed that divided these into ranks, assigned them an undue prominence, and held that Christ was only an angel. Paul does not pause to say whether these divisions are correct, but declares that Christ is above them all, created them, and that they were created for him. One of these heresies he wished to counteract was the doctrine of angel worship. 17. And he is before all things. He was before them all in time, and through him they came into existence.

      18-20. In verses 15-17 , Paul portrays Christ as the center and source of the creation. In this section he shows that he is the Head of the new creation. He is the head of the body, the church. In the church he is pre-eminent. It is his spiritual body, and he is the supreme head. Compare 1 Cor. 11:3 Ephesians 1:10 Ephesians 1:22 . The beginning. The new creation began from him and in him. He is first of all in time. The first-born from the dead. He first conquered death, and not for himself alone, but the great company of those found in him who have been born from the dead. 19. In him should all fulness dwell. All power and blessing. Completeness in all things. If limitations were placed upon his power to create, to save and to bless, all fulness would not dwell in him. 20. Having made peace. See notes on Eph. 2:14, 17. Christ came to make peace between Jew and Gentile, man and man, man and God. The means employed was the blood shed on the cross. Through it the law, the partition wall between Jew and Gentile, was removed, and both alike have access to God. By him to reconcile all things unto himself. "It pleased the Father" ( verse 19 ) . . "by him (Christ) to reconcile all things to himself" (the Father). All who accept Christ, are reconciled to him, and found in him, are reconciled thus to God. Whether things in earth. Human beings. Things in heaven. Chrysostom explains: Christ not only reconciles man on the earth, but raises him, who had been an enemy to God, to heaven and gives him a place there at peace with God, so that in the heavens the fruits of reconciliation are seen forever.

      21-29. You, that were some time alienated. In a state of estrangement before conversion. Enemies in your mind. Hostile on account of wicked works. A wicked life will fill a man with hostile thoughts to God. Yet now hath he reconciled. Christ has changed them by the gospel so that they are enemies no longer. God needs no change. The change must be wrought in man. 22. In the body of his flesh. It is through the sufferings of Christ that they are enabled to come to God. Without Christ and the cross there could be no gospel. Through his blood their sins are cleansed, so that they are holy in the sight of God. 23. If ye continue in the faith. Their continued acceptance depends on their clinging to Christ who redeemed them. Grounded and settled. Having an immovable foundation, so that they could not be moved from the hope of the gospel by any wind of doctrine. Which was preached, etc. See note on verse 6 above. 24. Who now rejoice. Rather, I now rejoice. My sufferings for your sake. He was a prisoner and a sufferer because he preached the gospel to the Gentiles. And fill up, etc. Christ endured afflictions for us. We must have a fellowship of his sufferings ( 1 Peter 4:13 ). Paul also suffers that he might share the afflictions of Christ. Not only did he suffer with Christ, but Christ suffers with his afflicted people. See Acts 9:4 . Hence, afflictions suffered for Christ may be called his afflictions. All the suffering required for the sake of the church is behind of the afflictions of Christ. 25. According to the dispensation. God made him a minister of the church. That ministry was a "stewardship" (dispensation) committed to him. He refers to the great responsibility of the apostolic office. He as a "steward of the grace of God" ( Eph. 3:2 ). To fulfil the word of God. Not only to do what the word required, but to preach the word everywhere. 26. Even the mystery. The mystery of the gospel, of salvation through Christ, hidden from past ages, but now revealed to the saints. A mystery, as Paul uses the term, is a thing hidden in the past, but now made known. 27. To whom God would make known. To the saints he would reveal the glory of the mystery. The glory of the mystery is Christ in you. Christ dwelling in the saved and filling their hearts with the hope of glory. 28. Whom we preach. Christ. Every man. Note that this is repeated three times in the verse. The apostle impresses the fact that the gospel is not for a few favored ones, but for every one. In all wisdom. In every form of wisdom. Perfect. We should all aim at perfection; the apostle aims to bring all to this ideal. The high ideal is before, for which we all should aim. However, he whose sins are all blotted out will be counted perfect in the great day. 29. According to the working. Christ within us is a life and a power. If we conquer the flesh and give ourselves entirely up to him he will work mightily.