CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Colossians 1:3. We give thanks to God.—The apostle here, as usual, gives credit for all that is worthy in his readers, though the tidings from Colossæ had been disquieting.
Colossians 1:4. Having heard of your faith.—This last word might possibly mean “fidelity,” the steadiness of an unwavering loyalty. But it is better to take it as the act of personal trust. Love to all the saints.—This was the distinguishing trait of all Christians—love one for another (John 13:35). How often have we heard the irony, “How these Christians love one another!” We are not warranted in withholding love until men are paragons of spiritual perfection—all in Christ are “saints.”
Colossians 1:5. For the hope.—This word completes the triad, though the order is changed, and hope here is the object—the thing hoped for. Laid up for you in heaven.—It is the same word in Luke 19:20, “laid up in a napkin”; in 2 Timothy 4:8, “henceforth there is laid up”; and in Hebrews 9:27, “it is appointed unto [laid up for] men once to die.” The word of the truth of the gospel.—Not to be interpreted into “the truly evangelic word.” There is an imposing sound in the phrase meant to agree with the thing denoted.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Colossians 1:3-5
The Causes of Ministerial Thanksgiving.
It is customary with the apostle to begin his epistles with the ardent expression of thanksgiving. This showed the devout habit of his mind, his constant and emphatic recognition of the grand source of good, and his deep interest in the spiritual condition of those to whom he wrote.
I. Thanksgiving an essential element in prayer.—“We give thanks, … praying always for you” (Colossians 1:3). The participle marks the thanksgiving as part of the prayer, and the adverb makes it prominent, indicating that when they prayed for them they always gave thanks. There is no true prayer without thanksgiving. Gratitude intensifies the soul’s sense of dependence on God, and prompts the cry for the needed help; and, on the other hand, earnest prayer naturally glides into fervent thankfulness. As one sin is interlinked with and produced by another, so the use of one grace begets another. The more temporal things are used, the more they wear and waste; but spiritual things are strengthened and increased with exercise. Every spiritual grace has in it the seed of an endless reproductiveness. Underlying every thanksgiving for others is a spirit of tender, disinterested love. Moved by this passion, the apostle, from the midst of imprisonment and sorrow, could soar on the wings of gratitude and prayer to heaven. “Thanksgiving will be the bliss of eternity.”
II. The Being to whom all thanksgiving is due.—“To God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Colossians 1:3). God is the Father of Jesus Christ, not only as God, by an eternal generation and communication of His whole essence unto Him in a method to us mysterious and ineffable, but also as man by virtue of the personal union of the two natures in Christ, and in a special sense exceeding every other way in which He is Father to men or angels. Thus God and the Father of our Lord Jesus are one; the particle “and” being exegetic of the same thing, not copulative of something different. All our blessings have their source in the bosom of the divine Father. Christ is the only revealer of the Father, and the active agent in bestowing the paternal benefits on humanity. The paternal aspect of the divine character as unfolded by Jesus Christ is most fascinating and assuring; and the loving heart delights to trace its blessings up to the Parent of all good, and to render Him devout and grateful praise.
III. This thanksgiving was grounded on the reputation of their faith in the Author of Christianity.—“Since we heard of your faith in Christ” (Colossians 1:4).
1. Christ is the object and foundation of all true faith.—He is so as the divinely consecrated Deliverer of the race. The grandeur of His redeeming work and the dignity and glory of His character are suggested by the titles here given to Him. Man must believe in Christ, not as an abstract truth, not as a poetic conception, not as a dim impersonal force acting in the sphere of ideality, but as a divine-human person—the anointed Saviour.
2. True faith is the root principle of the Christian life.—Without it neither love nor hope could exist. All the graces that strengthen and beautify the Christian character must grow out of faith.
3. True faith is ever manifest.—“Since we heard.” It is seen in the changed disposition and conduct of the individual believer. It is marked by the anxious Christian worker, and becomes known to a wide circle of both friends and foes. Epaphras rejoiced to bear tidings of the fact; and the soul of the apostle, since he heard, glowed with grateful praise. Happy the people whose highest reputation is their faith in Jesus!
IV. This thanksgiving was grounded on their possession of an expansive Christian love.—“And of the love which ye have to all the saints” (Colossians 1:4). Love to Christ is necessarily involved, for love to the saints is really a generous, unselfish affection for Christ’s image in them. Love is all-embracing. Peculiarities, defects, differences of opinion, distance, are no barriers to its penetrating ardour. It is the unanswerable evidence of moral transformation (1 John 3:14). It is the grandest triumph over the natural enmity of the human heart. It is the indissoluble bond of choicest fellowship.
“While we walk with God in light,
God our hearts doth still unite;
Dearest fellowship we prove,
Fellowship in Jesu’s love.”
V. This thanksgiving was further grounded on their enjoyment of a well-sustained hope.—The grace of hope naturally springs out of and is properly associated with the preceding two. Not one member of the holy triad can be divorced from the other without irreparable damage; without, in fact, the loss of that which is the resultant of the three—viz. active religious life. “Faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future. They may be regarded as the efficient, material, and final causes respectively of the spiritual life” (Lightfoot).
1. The character of this hope.—“The hope which is laid up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:5). It is the prospect of future heavenly felicity. Hope is put for the object hoped for—the hope of possessing a spiritual inheritance whose wealth never diminishes, whose splendours never fade; the hope of seeing Christ in all His regal glory; of being like Him; of dwelling with Him for ever. A prospect like this lifts the soul above the meannesses, disappointments, and sufferings of the present limited life.
2. The security of this hope.—“Laid up.” This priceless inheritance is safely deposited as a precious jewel in God’s secret coffer. There no pilfering hands can touch it, no breath can tarnish, no rust corrode, no moth corrupt. Earthly treasures vanish, and sometimes, to God’s people, nothing but the treasure of hope remains. The saint’s enduring riches are in the future, locked up in the heavenly casket. Where the treasure is there the heart should ever be.
3. The source and foundation of this hope.—“Whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel” (Colossians 1:5). The gospel is based on unchangeable truth, and is therefore worthy of universal credence. It alone unfolds the mysteries and glories of the future. The hope of heaven rests, not on the discoveries of human philosophy, but on the revelations of the true gospel. In vain do men seek it elsewhere. By the preaching of the gospel this hope is made known to man. How dismal the outlook where hope is unknown!
Lessons.—
1. We should thank God for others more on account of their spiritual than temporal welfare.
2. Learn what are the essential elements of the Christian character—faith, love, hope.
3. The proclamation of the gospel should be welcomed, and its message pondered.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Colossians 1:3-5. Good News and its Good Effects.
I. The good news, what it was.—That certain at Colossæ had not only the gospel, but had known the grace of God in truth, and were now joined to Christ by faith and to His people by love.
II. What were the results.—
1. Abundant thanksgiving to the God of redemption.
2. Constant prayer.
3. This epistle.
III. Application.—
1. It is well that ministers should be informed of the success of the gospel, both for their own encouragement and to secure their sympathy, prayers, and counsel for the young converts.
2. Established Christians and especially ministers should assure young converts of the gratitude, joy, and sympathy they feel and the prayers they present on their behalf.
3. If our hearts are right, we shall rejoice at the success of the gospel.—Preacher’s Magazine.
Colossians 1:5. Hope a Stimulus to Christian Perseverance—
I. In gaining the heavenly reward.
II. Because the heavenly reward is secure.—“Laid up for you.”
III. Is based on truth already known.—“Whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.”