having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye have towards all the saints,
Paul is writing to believers he had never met. All that reached him was a report of two things: they had faith in Christ Jesus and love for all God's people. Those two marks raise a question. What does a real work of God look like from the outside?
One writer explains why that report was enough:
Paul wrote so confidently because of what he had heard. A faithful servant of the Lord had been working among them, and he reported that they not only claimed to be Christians but showed the two central marks of Christianity, "faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints." He also told the apostle of their "love in the Spirit" (Col. 1:4, 8). It goes without saying: these movements of soul are never found in the natural man. Only a divine work can produce them.
The faith Paul heard about was not only the first step of a sinner coming to Christ. It marked the whole way they lived, and it proved itself in something visible:
Faith in Christ Jesus and love to all the saints marked them. Faith had drawn them to the Lord Jesus as needy sinners, and they went on walking by faith as dependent saints. Their love to the saints proved that their faith in Christ was real. Their love was not human love, which might have attached them only to certain people. It was divine love that went out to "all saints" because that is what they were.
Faith and love can sound like ordinary words. Do they say much?
This may seem a small thing to say. One might ask, Is this unique to the Colossians? Does not every believer trust in Christ and love those who are His? We may reply with another question: Does it characterise every Christian? Does it characterise us? It involves more than believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. It means He is the blessed, lasting object of our faith, and that the saints are the circle where our love is now at work.
Paul mentions faith before love, and then adds one testing word — "all":
Our love would bring in the thought of something on our part that would make us important. So although he is about to speak of love to the saints, he introduces the matter by "faith," because faith throws us not so much on our love to Him as on His love to us... This is a very important word in judging our love. We are all inclined to form a circle even among God's people. We have those we prefer, those who suit us best. Their thoughts, feelings and habits are more or less like our own, or at least are no great trial to us. But this is not love to the saints. There is more love of ourselves in it than love of them. The flesh likes whatever is agreeable to us, whatever causes us no pain.
Natural warmth cannot reach that far:
These two things, simple and elementary as they may appear, are extremely important. They show clearly and surely that a person has the divine nature — see 1 John 3:14; 1 John 5:1. An unconverted person may be quite attached to one believer here or there who happens to appeal to him. But he does not love "all the saints." That is beyond anyone except the one who is born of God.
Verse 8 calls this same love "love in the Spirit." That phrase explains how it reached Paul himself:
Here their love to the saints unfolds and grows. They did not know Paul personally, so they could only love him in the Spirit. I might know a fellow believer and be drawn to him by something attractive in the flesh. But love in the Spirit loves him because he belongs to Christ. Now love in the Spirit takes in "all saints," as we have it in verse 4.
The sentence does not stop at verse 4. The next verse gives a reason for their love:
It was "for" or "on account of" the hope that love to all the saints marked them. They would all be together with the Lord Jesus Christ and like Him, sharing the coming glory with Him. That hope was laid up for them in heaven, not on earth as Israel's hope is. That is why they loved all the saints.
- Heard. Paul had never seen these believers; a report of their faith and love was enough for him to thank God for them.
- Faith. Faith is named first: it rests us on His love to us, not on ours to Him — and it goes on as a daily walk of dependence.
- Love. Love is the proof faith gives of itself: divine love goes out to God's people because they are God's.
- All. The test is the word "all" — preferring a few who suit us is love of self, while loving saints as saints is beyond anyone not born of God.
- Hope. Behind that love stands the hope laid up in heaven; because their portion was there, their love reached everyone who shares it.
on account of the hope which [is] laid up for you in the heavens; of which ye heard before in the word of the truth of the glad tidings,
Paul thanks God for the Colossians' faith and love. Then he names what stands behind both: a hope already stored up for them in heaven. What is kept there? And why does a future hope change the way people live and love now?
"Laid up" is the language of storage, and the place matters as much as the fact. One writer sets both against two pressures on this church: philosophy and strict religious rules.
Their hope was laid up. It was safe. It was "in the heavens," not on the earth — despite philosophy and rules about denying the body. They had to beware of all these, whatever they looked like and whatever they promised. He would remind them of their own true hope, calling them back to the heavens where Christ is. That is the true and only deliverance from all the working of the human mind in divine things, and from earthly religion.
What is stored there is not a list of benefits. It is a Person, and everything else is bound up in Him.
It is not merely that we shall be there. Nor is it just that we have put all our interests into the hand of Christ, and that He will take care of all our happiness and joy in heaven. Christ Himself in glory is our hope. God has treasured up all that is ours in Him in the heavens, and we are to enjoy it now as hope.
The opening words tie the hope back to the faith and love of verse 4. One writer reads that hope as the reason these Colossians loved as they did.
It was "for" or "because of" the hope that love to all the saints marked them out. They would all be together with the Lord Jesus Christ and like Him, sharing with Him the coming glory. That hope was laid up for them in heaven, not on earth as Israel's hope is. So they loved all the saints.
Paul says they had heard of this hope already. It came to them with the gospel that first converted them — which means the gospel itself carries more than pardon.
The gospel, the good news of grace, had good news of glory wrapped up in it too. Such was the range and scope of the gospel they had heard. It was God's good news not only of the forgiveness of sins through the blood of His Son, but of eternal blessedness with Him in heaven.
That has a direct consequence for anyone who preaches, and the balance cuts both ways.
We learn from this that those who preach the gospel should stress its present effect, which is deliverance from the power of sin. They should stress its final effect too — bringing the believer into glory. It would of course be just as much a mistake to preach the final effect without insisting on the present one.
Paul piles up three weighty terms instead of just saying "the gospel." Each one answers a pull the Colossians felt.
It was not intellectual groping, but "the word" sent to them — God's revelation. It was not dabbling in legal forms, but "the truth," the truth of the gospel. The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The gospel came to them, and was still there with them, as unchanging as the One who is its sum and substance. Real truth, even when new, never sets aside the old. Instead it supplies the missing links, deepens the foundations and widens the scope.
In everyday speech "hope" means a wish that may not come true. Here it means the opposite. Paul urges it on them for a practical reason.
Hope in Scripture is not something uncertain. It is looking ahead to the future with no doubt at all involved… It was necessary to press this prospect on them, since they were travelling through a wilderness, exposed to present dangers and temptations. How vital it is for us all to keep the end in view!
One writer compares this letter with Ephesians, and the difference shapes daily life.
Heavenly things are our hope. Colossians does not begin with the counsels of God, as Ephesians does. Instead we get a long opening in which the apostle longs to settle the saints in this hope of heavenly things… My hope is laid up in heaven, but I am not sitting there.
- Hope stored. God has already stored the hope safely in heaven, not on earth — out of reach of philosophy and religious rule-keeping.
- Hope is a Person. God has treasured up everything for us in Christ in glory. Christ Himself is the hope, and we enjoy it now in anticipation.
- Hope fuels love. The Colossians loved all believers because of the hope. They were all heading for the same glory.
- Hope was preached. They heard it in the gospel itself. It announces forgiveness through the blood of God's Son, and eternal blessedness with Him. Preaching that drops either half is unbalanced.
- Hope keeps you walking. It is certainty, not guesswork. It steadies travellers still exposed to danger, whose hope is in heaven though they do not sit there yet.
which are come to you, as [they are] in all the world, [and] are bearing fruit and growing, even as also among you, from the day ye heard [them] and knew indeed the grace of God, in truth
The gospel had come to Colossae, and the same message was bearing fruit and growing across the world. Paul points to that fruit, and to the day they first heard, as the marks of grace known in truth.
The first thing Paul says about this gospel is where it goes.
A second mark of the gospel was that it was for everyone. It had reached them, and was among them, just as it was in the world. It was not merely Jewish news; it was for man. Offences abounded among the Jews; but sin is a far wider thing, and where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.
That scope was not a side detail. It answered a real pressure on these believers.
Then, as now, there were people who tried to draw believers back onto Jewish ground. So the Apostle reminds them that the gospel is for everyone. The grace of God cannot be limited to the Jew; it is for "all the world".
A small group in one town can feel cut off from anything bigger.
This same gospel had produced fruit in all the world as well as in them, so they were not isolated, whether they felt so or not. Fruit had been coming from the day they heard and knew the grace of God in truth (v.6). What a precious encouragement about the power of the truth they had learned!
Some fear that a message of free grace makes people careless.
Does grace make us careless or indifferent? It does not; it works in exactly the opposite direction; it produces fruit. Another rendering of this passage reads: "The Glad Tidings … are bearing fruit and growing, even as also among you." Both growth and fruit-bearing prove that life is there. Where people truly receive the Gospel, there is no standing still and no decay.
Set beside the law, the difference is sharp.
Grace is not like the law. The Ten Commandments are mostly negative. The law mostly deals with what is evil, and it condemns it. But the gospel reveals Christ as a power that gives life, strengthens, and produces fruit. Because it is a principle of life, it expands and grows as well as bearing fruit.
So who bears the fruit here — the message, or the people who receive it?
What is more, in that day the gospel itself was "bearing fruit and growing". Later we learn that the saints are to bear fruit and grow (Col. 1:10); here it is the gospel that bears fruit and grows. The saints themselves are the fruit of the gospel, and the character of Christ in the saints is the fruit that believers are to bear.
The phrase marks a starting point, not a finished event. What began at conversion kept producing.
It was gathering souls to God through Christ wherever it went, but besides, it was bringing forth fruit in those who were gathered. The clause that follows implies this: "since the day you heard it, and knew the grace of God in truth." Ever since that day it has been the power that bears fruit, just as at the start it was the seed of eternal life. And the grace of God, when known in truth, sets us before God in Christ; the fruits of that union we are to show here on earth.
Colossae had other teachings on offer.
The same gospel was going out into all the world, bearing fruit wherever people received it in faith. Could this be said of the various philosophical systems being introduced among the Colossians? Or could mysticism and law-keeping show such results? Only those who hear and believe the gospel know the grace of God in truth.
This knowledge is not all that Paul wants for them.
The Apostle sees two kinds of knowledge in the saints. One is the knowledge of "the grace of God in truth." The other is the knowledge of "His will in all wisdom and understanding" (verses 6 and 9). The saints at Colossae had reached the first; he longed for them to reach the second.
- Came. The gospel reached Colossae as a message already going out to the whole world — for man, not for one nation.
- Bore fruit. Grace does not make people careless. Fruit and growth prove that the message truly took hold.
- Fruit twice over. In verse 6 the gospel bears the fruit, and the believers are that fruit. By verse 10 they bear fruit themselves.
- Since that day. The same message that gave life keeps producing life — a starting date, not a closing one.
- More to know. They knew the grace of God in truth. Paul prayed they would go on to know His will as well.
even as ye learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow-bondman, who is a faithful minister of Christ for you,
Paul never preached at Colosse, yet he thanks God for the faith growing there. Verse 7 names the man who brought the message: Epaphras, whom Paul calls a fellow servant and a faithful minister of Christ.
Paul writes to a church he did not start.
In common with the letter to the Romans, this letter was addressed to saints in a place where Paul had not worked (2:1). The apostle did not found the church at Colosse. It seems God chose Epaphras to bring them the gospel — one of them, a servant of Christ (4:12), Paul's beloved fellow servant, and their faithful minister of Christ (1:7).
Epaphras carried the message to Colosse, and then carried news of Colosse to Rome.
It would appear from verse 7 that Epaphras had been the servant of Christ who brought the light to them. They had learned the Glad Tidings of the grace of God and of the hope of glory from his lips. Then verse 8 shows that he had travelled to Rome. There he told Paul what God had done among the Colossians, and how deep and sincere their Christian love was.
The title Paul gives Epaphras is a servant word, and it covers other workers too.
Paul was a deacon (minister) both of the gospel and of the Church, Christ's body (Col. 1:23 and 25). Tychicus was a faithful minister, or deacon, of Christ (4:7). And Epaphras was another. Both "minister" in Colossians 1:7 and "servant" translate the Greek word diakonos, "deacon."
The manuscripts differ over one word in this verse.
Several manuscripts read "a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf," and the editors Lachmann, Tregelles, and Alford follow them. This is perhaps the more correct reading. By it Paul is vouching for Epaphras' work at Colosse.
Rival teachers at Colosse were pushing speculation and Jewish ritual. They gained ground at a faithful worker's expense.
So the Apostle takes the opportunity, as he often did, to strengthen the hands of one who was Christ's minister and faithful on their behalf. He calls him here, with affection, "Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondman." The speculative views and the Jewish ritual forms no doubt had their promoters. Such men would seek to win favour at a faithful labourer's expense. We can easily see why Colosse needed this word commending Epaphras.
Paul had evidence for this, not just affection.
It seems Epaphras brought them this knowledge. Paul speaks of him as his fellow servant, and as a faithful minister of Christ for them. The work showed what the workman was. Through him, the apostle himself saw their love in the Spirit.
Epaphras founded the church. So why is Paul the one writing them a letter of instruction?
God used Epaphras (Col. 1:7) as His servant for the blessing of the Colossians. Thinking of that, we might be tempted to ask, "Was Paul interfering with somebody else's work when he sent this letter to them?"
The answer takes ownership out of it.
It would help us all to remember this. In Christianity, God works the service, and it is not the private property of a servant. The gospel reaches souls to give them a living link with the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. He uses one or another, but His object is to form this link with Himself.
The end of the letter shows how he served them once he was far away.
Earlier in the letter we learnt that Epaphras had laboured among the Colossian saints as a faithful minister of Christ. Now we learn that he is no longer with them. Yet he still laboured hard in prayer for them, and for the saints in the neighbouring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis... A wholesome and encouraging reminder that prayer is a powerful weapon in meeting the opposition of the enemy.
That kind of work never draws a crowd.
His labours, so far as the inspired writer has recorded them, do not seem to have been very showy or attractive. They were not designed to catch the human eye or win human praise. But they were most precious labours — peerless, priceless labours! They were labours done in private, labours behind the closed door, labours in the sanctuary. Without them everything else must prove barren and worthless.
- Learned. Epaphras, not Paul, brought the gospel to Colosse. Paul still thanked God for a church he had never visited.
- Servant. "Minister" translates the ordinary Greek word for a servant. Paul and Tychicus carry the same title. It describes work, not rank.
- Faithful. The work showed what the workman was. Paul said so out loud, where rival teachers were trying to pull a faithful labourer down.
- Not owned. Service is never a servant's private property. The Lord uses one worker or another to link souls to Himself. So Paul could write to converts he had not made.
- Sustained. Later the same man is labouring in prayer for those believers from far away. Hidden work, and without it everything else proves worthless.