EPISTOLA AD COLOSSENSES

• 609A

The Colossians, like the Laodiceans also, are Asians, and they too had been forestalled by false apostles, nor did the Apostle himself come to them, but he corrects them by an epistle. For they had heard the word from Archippus, who also received a ministry among them. Therefore the Apostle, now bound, writes to them from Ephesus by Tichicus the deacon and Onesimus the acolyte.

VERS. 1.-- Paul. After his custom he sets the salutation first. This being set first, he gives thanks for their good things, and, commending their faith and love, he prays that they may be made perfect in Christ, whose benefits and primacy he commends according to both natures; then, calling to mind the dignity of his own 609Bministry, he admonishes them not to withdraw from Christ, seduced through prophecy or the ceremonies of the law; last of all he instructs all together, morally, according to sexes and ages and conditions, and at the end he warns Archippus that he is to be careful of the ministry he has undertaken. An apostle, etc. Note that to all in dignity he here rightly names himself an apostle, because he was an apostle to these also, to whom he had preached through his own disciples.

VERS. 3.-- We give thanks. He shows the good things which they received, while he gives thanks for them.

VERS. 6.-- As, etc. That is, so purely and truly as it came through me and others into the whole world, and still remains in it, as if he should say: Not less has been done for you than in the other churches. Since the Gospel is in the world, it bears fruit there through good works, and 609Cgrows by the increase of knowledge and by the number of the faithful. Not by this do they have more than you, but God does this in the same manner as it is among you, and therefore you ought to add nothing further.

VERS. 7.-- For you, etc. Desiring whose salvation, he began to help Archippus.

VERS. 8.-- In the Spirit. Because you love for spiritual things, not for carnal.

VERS. 9.-- That you may be filled in all. It is a great thing to know fully what God wills, in all the matters of the active and the contemplative life.

VERS. 10.-- In knowledge. That they may not be ignorant of the form of their faith, that is, of the thing hoped for, whence they will be firm.

VERS. 11.-- In all virtue. You, I say, strengthened by God in all virtue, namely chastity and the rest. 609DWhich he can well do who is the brightness of the Father, that is, the Son. Or according as he has given you clear knowledge.

VERS. 12.-- Giving thanks. Now he begins to say that the law does not profit but harms, and that Christ suffices for all good things: which can be known from this, that he himself and the other apostles (who had been in the observances of the law), having dismissed them, fled for refuge to Christ: As if he should say: We pray for you, giving thanks to God, for this reason, because he makes us worthy, which the law never could.

610AHe has made us worthy. Not in the law, but in the light, that is, through God who is light of light, by whose grace we are illumined. Or in the light, that is, in clear knowledge, from which he who turns aside falls into darkness. Of the lot. The will of God is the lot in the human race, with whom there is no iniquity, but he does all things by justice, though a hidden one.

VERS. 13.-- He has snatched us from the power. That is, from hell, in which we were held by the devil: as much from our own transgression as from Adam's. And has translated, etc. When, raising us from the depth of Tartarus, he brought us into heaven with his only Son. For now believers, who are devoted with fixed mind, going forth from the world, are brought into heaven with an angel of the Father's right hand for their guide. The kingdom of the Son. Of which he himself says: My kingdom is not of this world; 610Bhe did not say: It is not here, but, it is not hence, because he does indeed sojourn in the world, but is not of the world. For to his own kingdom he says, You are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. They were of the world, when they belonged to the prince of the world.

VERS. 14.-- Redemption. The power of the devil being destroyed, the means of liberty was given to us by the pouring out of the blood of him who had no sin. So that, because the devil justly held those whom, guilty of sin, he had bound by the condition of death, he might justly let these go through him whom, guilty of no sin, the punishment of death undeservedly visited.

VERS. 15.-- Who is the image. In one way the image of a king is in a coin, in another in a son. We are the coin, in whom the image of God is Christ the Son. No image of God 610Cought to be worshipped, save that which is the very thing that he himself is, nor is that image to be worshipped instead of him, but with him.

VERS. 18.-- The head of the body, the Church. Because he stands to the Church as the head to the body. And since the Church began from Abel, how is he their head? Rightly, because he is the beginning of the Church, that is, its founder. Who is the beginning. Of the Church according to the divinity, that is, the founder of the Church, because he has illumined all the just, who from Abel as far as the last just man are begotten, by the power of his divinity and by the gift of his mercy. According to the humanity also he can be called the beginning of the Church, because it is founded upon the faith of his humanity. And rightly is he himself head and beginning, and ruler, and founder, because he himself is the firstborn, etc. The firstborn, etc. As he was born before all things of 610DGod, that he might create all things, so as man he first rises again, that he may restore, that he may always be first and chief.

VERS. 19.-- The fulness. Because he can do all things of himself; whence: As the Father has life in himself, so also the Son, who raises up and quickens whom he will, [Vulg. John 5:26 Sicut enim Pater habet vitam in semetipso, sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in semetipso, "as the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given to the Son also to have life in himself"; the second half here conflates John 5:21 sic et Filius quos vult vivificat] thus he is shown to be perfect God.

VERS. 20.-- To reconcile through him. It pleased God to reconcile through him, and he himself made peace not gratuitously, but through blood, things heavenly and things earthly, whence entrance into heaven lies open 611Ato man. All things, made through him, live in him their author.

VERS. 21.-- Alienated and enemies to his council, which comes to the same thing, because they did not receive the things which God commanded through Moses, inasmuch as they were devoted to their own idols.

VERS. 22.-- He has reconciled in the body. If, mortal and dead, he was able to reconcile, now, immortal, he can do all things.

VERS. 23.-- If yet you continue. Therefore he had said so many and so great things about Christ, that they themselves might place their hope in him alone, in whom are all things; that they might not think themselves to be made subject to any of the elements or of the angels: he alone is to be worshipped, and no one is to be reckoned in comparison with him. In all. Which new creature is now under heaven, yet is still a pilgrim, but nevertheless will come to 611Bglory.

VERS. 24.-- I fill up. Those of the sufferings which Christ endured, or which he has now commanded to be endured, which are still lacking, I fill up, that is, I am ready to suffer.

VERS. 25.-- I am made. He says that he was made a minister of the Gospel by God through Christ, that the ministry begun by God might be fulfilled through a fit servant, which was unknown from the ages. It has been given to me. That I may fulfil what God preordained concerning you, namely that you should be saved through the incarnation. This he says, lest salvation should seem not to have been promised to the Gentiles. Or, to me it has been given among you, [Vulg. quae data est mihi in vos, accusative, "which was given me toward you"] for that which is sought from my own is as much as if it were sought from myself.

VERS. 28, 29.-- Rebuking. We rebuke the gainsayers 611Cand overcome them, and we teach the obedient. In all wisdom. True wisdom is when Christ is acknowledged. That we may present, etc. In which. As if he should say: To my labour God joins miracles for confirmation.

VERS. 1.-- I will, etc. There follows: For you. For the Apostle was not less solicitous for those whom he had not seen than for those whom he had seen.

VERS. 2.-- Instructed in charity. Which God had toward us, who for us delivered up his Son. Unto all the riches. That is, the abundance of full understanding, where they may perfectly have understanding of things human and divine, as of the soul and of the supernal spirits. For otherwise no one ascends to the knowledge of God.

611DOf God the Father, etc. That you may know that the Father is another person from the Son, although the same in substance with him. If you strive toward knowledge, have recourse to Christ alone, because in him are all the riches, but hidden, and therefore do not wonder if you are in Christ and have not yet found them, because they lie open not to all, but to those who ask and knock.

VERS. 4.-- And this. I say not only that you may strive toward those things which you do not yet have, but that no one may deceive, and by reason of worldly things draw away from the hope which is in Christ.

VERS. 5.-- But also in spirit. To the saints it is given to see distant things in the spirit. Let them therefore beware for themselves whose deeds are not hidden from the master.

612ARejoicing. By this he makes them more ready about the Gospel, because he says that he rejoices in the ordering of their conversation and in the stability of their faith, so that, knowing whence they please God, they might become firmer in it.

VERS. 7.-- Rooted. The lesser ones in the active life. Above others built up in him. That is, you greater ones who are in contemplation.

VERS. 8.-- Deceit. What the false preachers say about the law. And vain. Because in this falsehood there is no usefulness, which sometimes is wont to be in false things. According to the elements. He touches those who expound idols more shrewdly, saying, Juno is the air, Neptune the sea; therefore, when he had said according to philosophy and vain, [Vulg. Col. 2:8 per philosophiam, et inanem fallaciam, "through philosophy and vain deceit"] he adds, according to the elements of the world: as if admonishing that not worshippers of images of whatever kind, but also, as it were, 612Bteachers and interpreters of the signs, are to be guarded against.

VERS. 9.-- Corporeally. Not because God is corporeal, but he has used a transferred word, because in a temple made by hands he dwelt not corporeally but in shadow, that is, by prefiguring signs. Corporeally, because in the body of Christ which he took from the Virgin, as in a temple, God dwells, but not so in the saints, because he is the head in which all the senses, reside; as it were touch alone, in those to whom the Spirit is given by measure, of whom it cannot be said: The Word was made flesh (Joan. I), nor is any of them called the only-begotten of God.

VERS. 12.-- Buried together with him. That is, baptized after the likeness of his burial. Through the faith of the operation. That is, 612Cby believing the works of God. He expounds one of the works of God, which it is especially necessary for those who wish to rise again to believe, namely that God raised up Christ, and that by the example of Christ he will raise them up whence he subjoins: Who raised up, etc.

VERS. 14.-- Blotting out. Not only to you Gentiles has God granted pardon, but to us Jews also he has remitted the transgressions which are from the law. And this is, Blotting out.

The handwriting. He means the sin of Adam, which he took away and fixed to the cross, yet not that alone, others as well: because unless he took away this and the others, we should not be freed from death and hell. While the innocent one is slain, sin is crucified. The decree, [Vulg. chirographum decreti, genitive, "the handwriting of the decree"] is the sentence adverse in all men, by which it was said: You shall die the death, [Vulg. Gen. 2:17 morte morieris, singular; the plural morte moriemini stands at Gen. 3:4, in the serpent's mouth and there denied by Nequaquam] etc.

612DFastening it. That it may now cease, since all sacrifices are fulfilled in the offering of the true Lamb.

VERS. 15.-- Despoiling the principalities and powers. By taking away Abraham, Isaac and the rest of the just. He led across, he led them far from this kingdom to heaven. Confidently. That is, with hope of victory. Triumphing, that is, vanquishing them upon the cross, which is not in secret, but openly. For if anyone looks upon the perfection of the Church, the ancient enemy is plainly seen to be conquered. Or, he led across the principalities and powers, that is, he drove them out from the Church. Triumphing over them in himself. By his own death. For, one most true sacrifice having been offered for us, whatever of faults there was (whereby the principalities and powers held us fast for the paying of the punishments of life) 613Ahe extinguished: whence, therefore, the devil received outwardly the power of slaying the Lord's flesh, thence his inner power which held us was slain.

VERS. 17.-- Which are a shadow, etc. Then there were precepts of this kind, not to keep which was sin, now they are testimonies and the confirmation of truth. I [Ego; read Ergo, "therefore"] the Scripture which then was the exactor of the works that signify, is now the witness of the things signified: and that which then was observed unto foreannouncement, is now recited unto confirmation. But the body. That is, the truth of this shadow is Christ's, that is, it pertains to Christ. Or all those things are the body of Christ, that is, they signify the body of Christ, either that which he took from the Virgin, or that which is the Church.

VERS. 18.-- Willing. That is, loving those things which he has not 613Bseen. Or, willing, namely to urge the things which he has not seen, namely the ceremonies of the law, the reason of which he does not know. Puffed up. The puffed-up man understands no other thing than what sensuality grasps.

VERS. 19.-- Compacted, etc. Into one through conjunction, because they believe the same things and work the same things. And supplied, in serving under. Through joints. That is, through charity, without which the members do not cohere, nor serve one another, nor live. Unto the increase of God. God is increased by those returning, as he is diminished by those forsaking.

VERS. 20.-- If therefore you are dead. Thus far he has admonished those standing, lest they be seduced, now he assails those who were already keeping some things from the law; as if he should say: You, see 613Cthat you be not seduced, but do you say to others, Why do you keep the law? By the elements he means the creatures of this world. If, he says, when you received the faith of Christ, you were separated from sin, and from the elements of the world, that is, from abstinence and from every superstition of the creatures of the world. Why yet, etc. It can be taken with Christ and as Christ.

VERS. 22.-- Which all things by the very use, etc. If anyone uses them by the Jewish rite, so that he abstains from these and uses those, believing that he is thereby justified, they lead into death. These things, I say, now existing according to the precepts and doctrines of men, etc., not of God: for after the truth came, God now does not command these things, but the Pharisees both command them by authority and teach them by reasonings.

613DVERS. 23.-- In humility, etc. That humility which is a virtue is not here understood, but, as it is understood from the Greek, that by which the mind is minded of low things, that is, of useful and earthly things, that is, by a casting down of the soul, and they are: Not for the sparing of the body. Because in those observances there is much labour, which is empty, and they are not: In the honour of God, whose counsel, is called void, nor of the saints, whose faith is destroyed and they are not: Unto the satisfying of the flesh, because they withdraw many things. In superstition, etc. The religion is feigned, that things which are false may seem true, which humbles minds upon the earth, lest they be raised to things above; and it harms the body, whose head is Christ: not in honour, because, cut off from the head, Christ, they fulfil the sense of the flesh. For the fattening of the carnal sense is human 614Atradition, because it says that that suffices which the prudence of the flesh delivers.

VERS. 1.-- The things that are above. Not by place, but by merit of excellence.

VERS. 2.-- The things above. Spiritual things, which were signified through the carnal observances, these are eternal glory and the things which lead to it.

VERS. 3.-- Your life hidden. That is, your time has not yet come, because the summer has not yet come, that is, the coming of Christ, where the fruitful trees shall be discerned from the barren; but the time of those who love earthly things is always ready. But when Christ shall have appeared, this is our time.

VERS. 5.-- Mortify, etc. After the reasonings concerning the fulness of 614BChrist, a general exhortation to all concerning morals is subjoined, lest they return to their former habit. Your members. That is, the parts of the old man, or the concupiscences of the members. Fornication, etc. He describes the offences which he calls members, that after receiving the reason of truth they might give their labour to a good life. It much harms to know the reason of the true, and not to carry it out in deeds. For he who knows the will of the Lord, and does not do it, shall be beaten with many stripes (Luc. XII). [Vulg. Luke 12:47 Ille autem servus qui cognovit voluntatem domini sui, et non praeparavit, et non fecit secundum voluntatem ejus, vapulabit multis; the Vulgate has no plagis] And covetousness. Under one name he forbids two most evil things, idolatry and covetousness, which is not a dissimilar wickedness, because it is the root of all evils, and they are fulfilled in almost one work: because, as idolatry strives to take glory away from the one God, lest he alone should have the name of deity, so the covetous man extends himself into the things of God, that he alone may usurp 614Cwhat God made for all: both are hostile to God, because they deny to God the things which are his.

VERS. 7.-- In which you also walked. He mentions me morat this, that they may rejoice that they have escaped, and may beware for the rest.

VERS. 8.-- But now. Above he forbade the graver things, now the lesser, lest these be thought not dangerous. There are those who have not the habit of drunkenness, who sometimes get drunk: as also there are those who have not the habit of lying, and yet sometimes lie, so it happens in other matters also. He forbids therefore to lie sometimes, and especially to lie continually.

VERS. 10.-- Who is renewed. The renewal of the mind is said to be according to God, as is read in the epistle to the Ephesians, or according to the image of God, [Vulg. Col. 3:10 secundum imaginem ejus qui creavit illum, "according to the image of him that created him"] as is read here. But it is said according to God for this reason, lest it be thought to come about according to some other 614Dcreature.

VERS. 14.-- Charity. For it is itself the more eminent way, which is above knowledge and all precepts. This is the seamless garment of the Lord, woven from above. Seamless, lest at any time it be unsewn, which reaches to one, because charity gathers all into one.

VERS. 15.-- Peace. This is necessary to the unity of the body, which it has itself made. The peace of God. [Vulg. Col. 3:15 pax Christi, "the peace of Christ"] There can be called a peace which has not charity; but charity always has peace with itself.

VERS. 16.-- Teaching and admonishing. He says this, that there may be teaching for those who know not, and admonition for those who know.

615AVERS. 17.-- All whatsoever. Because above he commanded God to be praised in the heart, now he exhorts that the name of God be praised and exalted both in words and in deeds: so that our words and works may thus lack reproof, that the Lord may be magnified, by whose teaching the disciples are unblameable. All things. Not only what you do in word or in deed, but all things, even thoughts, and if there be any others. Or, whatever you do, do the whole, that is, the perfect, by attributing it to God, and this is, doing in the name. Giving thanks. Then do we truly give thanks to God through Christ, if we keep the measure of his precepts.

VERS. 21.-- Fathers. He commands fathers to be moderate toward their sons, lest the sons, hemmed in by them, transgress against them, 615Band offend God. For anger is an inconsiderate thing, so that sometimes he who is angry spares not even himself.

VERS. 23.-- Work from the heart as to the Lord. God approves that innocence by which a man becomes innocent not through fear of punishment, but through love of justice: for he who, through fear, does not sin, although he does not harm others, yet harms himself very greatly. Feigned equity is not 616Aequity, but a doubled sin. In which there is iniquity and dissimulation.

VERS. 3.-- A door. That is, may he make my mouth open: which was given for this, that the word might go forth from it. It is open, when it speaks many and great things.

VERS. 5.-- Redeeming the time. That is, preparing, by some means, the opportunity of preaching to them.

VERS. 8.-- That he may know the things which concern you and may comfort your hearts, etc. He who sees himself known is more on his guard than he who sees himself ignored.

VERS. 10.-- You have received, because he has returned to me, and therefore if he shall come.

616BVERS. 16.-- Cause that it also in, etc. From this place we understand that the Apostle's instructions are general, and that the epistles were written for the profit of all men.

VERS. 18.-- Be mindful, etc. Before he sets down the salutation, he prefixes an exhortation, saying: Be mindful, etc.