if indeed ye abide in the faith founded and firm, and not moved away from the hope of the glad tidings, which ye have heard, which have been proclaimed in the whole creation which [is] under heaven, of which *I* Paul became minister.
Paul has just said that God reconciled the Colossians to present them holy and blameless before Him. Then he adds a condition. That little word "if" troubles many readers. Does Christ's finished work hang on our staying power? And what is "the faith" Paul tells us to continue in?
The condition does not reopen the question of whether Christ's work holds. It shows what a person would throw away by leaving Christianity. It leaves God's keeping untouched.
If we abandoned Christianity, we would lose our advantage. We would be rejecting the grace that presented us to God. This does not touch election or the perseverance of the saints at all. You find this kind of language all through the letters. It only proves that God keeps us personally, and keeps us morally. His faithfulness guaranteed that He would carry out His purpose.
So the verse works as a test. Continuing does not make a person reconciled; it shows that he is. (Older translations render the ESV's "stable and steadfast" as "grounded and settled.")
It is the test for everyone who claims to be a Christian. If he continues, it proves that he is reconciled, and in God's sight holy, blameless and above reproach. Certainly, if one is born again, he will continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast... If one does not continue, this proves he had never been reconciled. This sad condition answers to the seed sown on rocky ground. Appearances were good at first, but it soon withered away (Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21). True faith becomes grounded and settled, and it keeps a person from being moved away. In fact, faith makes the hope of the gospel more and more precious as time goes by.
Paul does not write "continue believing." The small word "the" changes what he is asking for.
It is not simply "continue in faith." The expression is "the faith" — the full range of things presented here, with the believer grounded and settled in them... So everything Paul was made a minister of, shown in this letter, is "the faith." It is the whole circle of revelations given to him from first to last — some shared with the other apostles, some given to him alone.
The Colossians had good order and steady faith. A warning still followed.
What it really proves is this: no amount of blessed order or steadfastness can safeguard a soul that lets in wrong thoughts and corrupt principles. Such principles cloud, weaken, or lower the glory of Christ... No soul, whatever its blessing past or present, can afford to trifle with anything that upsets the Person or glory of Christ.
"Hope" here is not vague optimism. It has a location and a Person.
What is "the hope of the gospel"? It is in a heavenly Christ who died for us, giving us the assurance of being with Himself there. The hope of Israel was the earth; this "hope of the gospel" is above. Without knowing it, the Colossians were truly losing sight of their heavenly hope. This was happening because the thought of adding philosophy or religious rules to Christ tends to strip a person of Christ.
The danger was not open unbelief. It was religion that ties people back to earth.
Some people were trying to lure these saints away from their heavenly hopes. They pressed them to take up strict self-denial, feast days, and religious rules, which tied them to earth. Such teaching did not match the gospel they had heard, and of which Paul had been made a minister.
Did every person on earth hear it? The phrase is about how far the message was sent, not a count of people already reached.
The words "in all creation that is under heaven" mean that its witness went out over the whole world as people knew it then... The word "creation" is not the one used for each single creature. It means creation in a general sense, and the missing "the" in Colossians 1:23 confirms this... Yet it had truly been proclaimed then, because Christ's servants had gone out and preached everywhere in the world as it was known at that time.
Paul then names himself a minister of that gospel — the first of two services he describes in this chapter.
Notice these two ministries: the preaching of the gospel in all the creation under heaven, and Paul's service as minister of the church. These two ministries are distinct, but we see them combined in the person of Paul.
- Reconciled — verse 22 presents you "holy and blameless" on the ground of Christ's death. The "if" that follows does not touch God's keeping.
- Tested — continuing does not make you real; it shows that you are. The one who walks away shows he was rocky ground all along.
- Grounded — hold "the faith": the whole circle of truth given through Paul, not just a believing frame of mind.
- Unmoved — the hope of the gospel is a heavenly Christ. Adding philosophy or religious rules to Him ties the heart back to earth.
- Proclaimed — the same gospel that steadies you went out into all creation under heaven, and Paul put his own name to serving it.
Now, I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly;
Paul writes from prison, and he is glad to suffer. Then comes one of the hardest lines in his letters: something is still lacking in Christ's afflictions, and Paul makes it up in his own body.
Commentators are united that this verse does not touch atonement. The distinction they draw is between suffering that only Christ could bear and suffering He deliberately left open to others.
The meaning seems to my mind clear. Christ suffered in love and holiness from the evil around Him, as well as in atonement; in the latter He was alone, in the former not exclusively so. Paul was filling up part of those afflictions, in his flesh, for His body which is the church. It is not that Christ did not suffer as well as walk perfectly as none ever did; but He left us to follow in the same path of suffering love here below, and specially for His body's sake.
The vocabulary itself settles the matter. The particular word Paul chooses here is one he never uses of Calvary.
The word "afflictions" ("afflictions of Christ") is never found anywhere else in connection with our blessed Lord. But it is used again and again of the saints. It shows the trials, persecutions and tribulations that come on them from outside, because they confess Christ and stay faithful to Him in an evil world. This proves that these afflictions of Christ are entirely apart from His sufferings on the cross, when making atonement. Instead, they are the sufferings He endured all through His path of doing the will of God, and here the point is that they came on Him through His love for the Church.
Paul's own share of them had a reason.
The word of God was not "completed" until the truth of the Church was made known. So Paul, as its minister, suffered in a special way for the sake of His body, the Church.
The hatred Christ met on earth did not die with Him. It changed target.
Whatever has been introduced into this world concerning Christ, Satan has opposed. He opposed Christ when Christ was in this world. Now Christ is in glory, forming this body which will exist joined to Himself, and Satan is going to persecute it. That is why he attacks the apostle who brings out this truth of the church so fiercely. He can no longer persecute Christ, who is in the glory, so he persecutes the vessel that brings out this ministry.
Timing matters too. The church did not yet exist while Jesus walked on earth:
Our Lord could not share in the sufferings that had to be borne while the church of God was formed and carried on through this world. When the church was first formed our Lord was in glory, past all earthly suffering. So it was left to the Apostle Paul to have the high honour of suffering for the church... The Greek word for "fill up" occurs only in this passage. It means to put in as a complement, or to fill up instead of.
Paul says where the suffering landed. That detail cuts against a teaching already circulating at Colossae.
They were real outward sufferings from enemies, as he says, "in my flesh." He does not make it only a question of his spirit. Yet if his spirit had not gone along with the trials, the suffering would have had no value. And it was no light thing for his body either. Some at Colossae, we know from the end of Colossians 2, were pressing for hard treatment of the body. The Apostle lets them know that this fits very well with a thoroughly puffed-up flesh.
How far does this reach past Paul himself? One answer: the commission was his alone, and yet a share is left for us. The quote keeps the older wording "that which is behind" for what the ESV calls "what is lacking".
"Filling up that which is behind" signifies that there was more to be done. The Head had done His part, of course: Paul's was not atonement. I think this was confined to the apostle Paul. Peter and the rest never suffered for the church, though they suffered for Christ's sake... We may have our share in the privilege, as some great banker takes up a large loan and other people take up parts of it.
Paul suffered for the sake of Christ's body — and that body reaches far past the first century.
In his imprisonment the Apostle was filling up the cup of his afflictions, and he did it for the church in the widest sense. Not only for the church as it existed on earth in his day, but for the church through the ages to the end of its history here, including ourselves. He suffered so that the truth about the church might be made completely plain and settled. Out of his sufferings came these immortal letters, which instruct us today.
The verse opens with gladness. That gladness came from what the work was worth to him.
Does it not show how precious this ministry was to the heart of the apostle, that he could rejoice in these sufferings? Here is a man given the most remarkable ministry, and it involved the most intense suffering. Yet the ministry was so precious in his sight, and so essential for the practical salvation of the saints, that he would rejoice in all the sufferings it involved.
- Finished — atonement is Christ's alone, and nothing is lacking there. What stays open is the suffering He met on His path of doing God's will, through His love for the church.
- Transferred — Satan cannot reach Christ in glory. So he attacks His body, and hardest of all the man sent to make that body known.
- Bodily — "in my flesh" means real blows from real enemies. That is the opposite of the self-punishment some at Colossae wanted.
- Shared — the commission was Paul's own. Others take up parts of it, the way small lenders take shares in one great loan.
- Fruitful — he suffered for the whole church in every age. The letters that teach us today came out of that suffering, and that is why he could call it joy.
of which *I* became minister, according to the dispensation of God which [is] given me towards you to complete the word of God,
Here Paul explains why he has a second service beyond preaching the gospel, and what it was meant to achieve. Two things carry the weight. One is the "stewardship" God handed him, which older versions call a "dispensation." The other is his task of making God's word fully known.
Verse 23 and verse 25 each call Paul a minister, but of two different things.
Notice these two ministries: the preaching of the gospel in all the creation which is under heaven, and Paul's service as minister of the church. These two ministries are distinct, but we see them combined in the person of Paul. God usually gives lesser ministries than apostleship for one or the other of these two branches of service. Yet He sometimes uses one and the same servant to meet the very varied need of souls.
One writer traces both back to the day of Paul's conversion, and warns against pulling them apart.
There were two things: the light and the voice. The light gives character to Paul's gospel — the radiance of the glad tidings of the Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). The voice speaks to the nature of the church: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" That is, the believers on earth were a part of Himself, members of His body (Eph. 5:30). Both ministries are distinct, yet they are still connected. Separating them harms both. The gospel leads to the church.
Three words in this verse carry its sense: "minister," "stewardship," and "complete."
In verse 25, Paul says of himself that he was "made minister." The word means "waiter." Paul as a waiter served this truth to give light to the saints. In the same verse, the word "dispensation" means "house-law." God gave him that house-law so that he might complete the divine revelation. The word "complete" does not mean adding to something else. It means filling up a system already sketched out. The idea of fresh light is ruled out.
The phrase "given to me for you" is not vague. It points to the readers as Gentiles.
In verse 25 the context suggests "complete" rather than "fulfil." There was a blank left in the revelations of God, and the apostle, as minister not only of the gospel but of the assembly, was given to complete the word of God, who would now show to His saints the mystery hidden from the ages and from the generations. Such was the dispensation or stewardship of God given him towards the Gentiles.
Older versions say Paul was "to fulfil the word of God." Many take that to mean he carried out his duty faithfully.
To fulfil the Word of God does not mean, as is often said, that Paul fulfilled his ministry and was faithful in it. It means instead that God gave him the revelation which makes full, or completes, the Word of God. The two letters written from prison, to the Ephesians and Colossians, contain this completion of the Word of God.
Nor does completing mean writing the final page of the Bible.
A "dispensation," or "administration" was given to him by God so that through it he might "fulfil," or "complete," His Word. This does not mean that Paul was to write the last words of Scripture, for, as we know, John did that. It means that God entrusted him with revealing the mystery mentioned in the following verses. Once that was made known, the last item of revelation was filled in. The circle of revealed truth was complete.
So what was missing? One writer lists what God had already made known:
"The dispensation of God" given to Paul completed the word of God. Creation, Providence, Law, Government, the Kingdom, Incarnation, Atonement — the word of God had unfolded every subject but one.
The missing subject was the last stone in the building.
The last stone was laid in the building of revelation when the apostle Paul had revealed to him, and laid in his teaching, the stone of the mystery. Christ's body, which is the church, and the mystery here called "Christ in you, the hope of glory," is the furthest point. There is absolutely nothing beyond it.
If Paul completed the word of God, this verse settles the question of fresh revelations.
It may be asked, How do we know that the Book is complete? If the Spirit of God is in the Church, why may He not give further revelations? One scripture answers that question... The body of revelation was completed with the writings of Paul. No further unfolding of truth remains. Peter and John, rounding out their ministry, no doubt did write later than Paul. But they were only finishing a ministry already begun, and adding no fresh line of truth.
This is not just a fact about the Bible's history. It shapes how a Christian grows.
Paul knew the great importance of the mystery as the characteristic truth for this dispensation. Every dispensation of God has truth which gives character to it, and this is the truth which characterises the present one. Only as we are taught in it are we likely to be "perfect," or "complete," in Christ.
- Stewardship — the word means a house-law trusted to a servant. Paul did not invent his message. He administered what God handed him.
- Two ministries — verse 23 makes him minister of the gospel, verse 25 minister of the church. The two are distinct, but never to be pulled apart: the gospel leads to the church.
- Complete, not fulfil — the word is not praise for Paul's faithfulness. It means he filled up a system God had already sketched out.
- The last stone — creation, law, the kingdom and atonement were already unfolded. The mystery of Christ's body and "Christ in you" finished the building.
- Result — the circle is closed, so no further revelation is coming. The same truth that completed Scripture makes a believer "complete" in Christ.
the mystery which [has been] hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been made manifest to his saints;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory
Paul names a secret God kept hidden for ages: Christ Himself living in people who had no claim on Him. Two questions follow. What was hidden for so long? And why does Christ living in a believer make glory certain?
The word does not point to something puzzling. One writer explains what it does mean, and who the "you" of this verse is:
In Scripture a "mystery" does not mean something mysterious or impossible to understand. It simply means something that had been secret or hidden up to that time, or at least known only to those let in on it. The mystery spoken of here had been completely hidden in earlier ages, and now is only made known to God's saints... Read the verse and you will see that the "you" here means "you Gentiles." In the past God lived for a short time among Israel. Then the Messiah appeared for another short season among Jews in the land. But Christ now found in Gentiles was something completely new and unheard of.
The Jews expected a Christ who would be their crown of glory. What Paul announces is different:
Verse 27 gives us "Christ among you, the hope of glory." The Christ of the Jews was not "the hope of glory." When He came He was "a crown of glory," and He was not among the Gentiles at all. But now Gentiles who have no title to glory have Him as "the hope of glory."
Paul does not just say "the glory of this mystery." He says the riches of that glory. So what are these riches? One writer answers with a Person:
Here we are plainly told what these vast riches are — Christ in us, the hope of glory! Christ, in whom, as verse 19 tells us, "all the fullness of the Godhead" dwells. He is in us — not apart from those who form His body, but living in them — the hope of glory.
The hope is not waiting for someone to arrive. He is here already, and that is what makes the glory certain:
What marked out "the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles" was Christ in them. It was not waiting for a glorious Messiah to come, which was the hope of the Jew. It was Christ in them, the hope of glory — Christ already theirs. He Himself secured the glory for those in whom He was pleased to live, and He was at the same time the hope of that glory.
Another writer marks off what kind of indwelling this is:
Christ is said to be in us here, not dwelling in our hearts by faith, but actually the hope of glory... It is Christ's life in us in its full risen character of display.
This life inside is meant to show on the outside:
After Colossians presents Christ's personal glories, its leading feature is "Christ in you" — Christ in the believer as the power of life. As we read in Colossians 3, He is our life. So the Christian is to show Christ in practice, in every trait of His character, while in this world. This Christian is the one who has died with Christ and has risen with Him.
Where this hope is dim, conduct sags with it:
It is very little understood. As a result the "hope" that should stir our souls grows weak, and our practical walk often falls far short of what it ought to be. Is it not sad that many people shrink this "hope" down to a vague idea of getting to heaven one day?
- Secret — in Scripture a "mystery" is not a riddle. It is a hidden thing God has now spoken out loud, and this one was kept back through all earlier ages.
- Gift — the secret is a Person, not a plan: Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, living in His people.
- Reach — He is found among Gentiles, who had no claim on glory. To the Jew He was to come as a crown of glory; to these He is the hope of it.
- Certainty — because He is already theirs, the glory is not a wish; the One who secures it is the One indwelling.
- Result — Christ within is the power of life now, so His character should mark the walk; a dim hope makes a weak walk.
whom *we* announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ.
This verse holds Paul's whole ministry in one line: the Person he preached, and the grown believer he worked to present. So what does "mature" mean — older translations say "perfect" — and why must warning and teaching go together?
The verse puts a Person first: "Him we proclaim." Paul has just spoken of Christ living in believers. Now he says whom he preaches. One writer ties the two together:
What Scripture presents as the object of faith is always the power of life in the soul. The apostle speaks of Christ in us. At once he adds, "Whom we preach," with the aim of presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Though Christ is in all believers, His shaping power in us comes as we take hold of Christ, whom the Word unfolds to us.
Paul does not choose between alarming people and instructing them. He does both, and one writer explains why the letter carries that double tone:
It is worth noting that in this very passage (Colossians 1:28) the apostle, as a preacher of Christ, links "warning" with "teaching" as a Christian duty: "warning every man, and teaching every man." The faith was under threat at its very foundation. That is why the apostle's letter had this double character of caution and explanation. An epidemic calls for public safety warnings. Normal times do not need them.
The pairing is not occasional. Another writer notes that the Spirit of God never separates warning from teaching in this work. A believer sees the dangers around him only in the light of the truth about where he stands before God (A. Pridham).
The phrase repeats three times in one sentence. That repetition is the point:
Christ Himself is the object of preaching, warning and teaching. Paul makes no exceptions here: his message is for "every man." Some may need warning rather than teaching. Others do not need warning so much as teaching. But he was ready to give his message to Jews, Gentiles, rich or poor, upright or degraded. He wanted to present every person perfect in Christ Jesus. Paul was not content just to see a soul forgiven. He wanted every individual to understand the perfection of his place in Christ.
This letter is full of the body of Christ. Yet Paul presses each person one by one. As one commentator puts it, this singling out of each person is all the more beautiful next to the truth of the body. Nothing else holds the two together. Press the corporate side, and the individual usually suffers; press the individual, and the corporate side suffers (William Kelly).
The older word "perfect" misleads modern readers. It points to full growth, not a flawless condition:
He who knew best the faithful love of Christ is just as urgent with each person one by one. So he never let up in his labour. So he spent heart and thought to build "every man" up in the truth… "that we may present every man full grown in Christ." This is the meaning of "perfect." Nothing here is about a question of evil within. It is about arriving at maturity in Christ, instead of staying babes who rest only in forgiveness.
Being in Christ is the start; growing into a formed Christian is the goal:
It is not enough for the spiritual life that someone be in Christ and nothing more. We must also grasp what Christ is, and this knowledge must shape our character. A Jew or a Gentile who embraced the faith was saved. But he still had much to learn about our Saviour… Paul never grew tired in his efforts to make Jesus known.
"Teaching every man" cost method as well as effort. Public preaching alone did not achieve it:
He was not content with showing; he explained and pressed home what he had shown. A teacher may know a mathematical problem perfectly and be able to show it on the board. Passing that knowledge on to his pupils is another thing… So the apostle was not content with public ministry. He went from house to house. He no doubt found in his visits that much he had said in his public address had not been grasped. Are we not often surprised, when we question our hearers, to find how little they have kept?
- Whom. The message is a Person, not a subject: Christ preached is Christ formed in the soul.
- Warning. Danger to the faith calls for caution as well as instruction. The Spirit never separates the two.
- Teaching. Teaching must land. So Paul explained and pressed the truth house to house, not only from the platform.
- Everyone. Paul leaves out no one and loses no one in the crowd. Jew or Gentile, upright or degraded — the verse says "everyone" three times.
- Mature. The goal is not sinlessness but full growth. Knowing what Christ is shapes the character, so believers grow up instead of staying babes who rest only in forgiveness.