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.