to the end that their hearts may be encouraged, being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to [the] full knowledge of the mystery of God;
Paul was in a hard struggle for Christians he had never met, and his prayer for them asks four things: encouraged hearts, love, full assurance, and the knowledge of God's secret. Why would he agonise over what they understood, and why does love come into it?
The word behind Paul's "struggle" in verse 1 is strong. One writer links it to the Lord's own agonised praying in the garden of Gethsemane:
"How great a struggle I have for you." There we see what prayer can be. The same word is used of the Lord in agony in Gethsemane. This is not only coming to God as our Father with our needs, though we cannot get far without that. This is overcoming Satan... Paul had never seen these Christians, but he carried them on his heart before the Lord, and the Lord was as much in one place as another. He was with them, even though Paul was not.
Paul asks first that their hearts be encouraged. One writer reads that request as a clue to how they were doing:
"That their hearts may be encouraged." They were not happy at that time. They were weighed down. Their thoughts were clouding over, and they were losing the clear view they once had... Things were getting in the way of their understanding of this mystery. Still, his great desire was that they should understand it well. A person may be a Christian, seeing the grace of God in Christ, and yet have poor thoughts and a very weak grasp of God's purposes and ways.
Being "knit together in love" is not a separate wish tacked on. Love shapes how much of the truth a believer can take in:
We must not leave verse 2 without noticing those words, "their hearts... knit together in love."... It is when God's love rules among His people that the full knowledge of the mystery becomes a simple thing. A believer cut off from all Christian company might study his Bible, leaning on the Spirit's teaching, and gain a very good grasp of it in his mind. But he could not know it in his own experience. We never understand it fully until we have some experience of what it means.
The mystery itself leaves no room for a self-centred reader:
Selfishness has no place in the mystery. Every believer is only one item of the whole — the body of Christ, in which the new man is displayed through every member. Being joined together in love would let them enter all the wealth of the full assurance of understanding, and the full knowledge of the mystery of God.
Older translations say "acknowledgment" here. One writer says that word is too cold for what Paul asks:
What Paul was labouring for is stated in verse 2. It was not the cold and formal "acknowledgment," as the older translation puts it, but "the full assurance of understanding," reaching on to the "full knowledge of the mystery of God." And all of this was so that their hearts would be "encouraged — being knit together in love."
Another writer calls it "a deeper and more intimate knowledge and acquaintance" (J. A. Trench).
"Mystery" here does not mean something puzzling. It means a secret God once kept back and has now told:
The word mystery means a secret. It may not be a secret now, but it means something that once was a secret. When people cannot understand a thing, they tend to call it a mystery. But in Scripture it means a truth that God kept hidden and keeps hidden no longer — something they did not know as men or as Jews, but that Christ would teach them as Christians.
The verse names the secret: it is Christ. One writer shows how much that takes in:
Here we have the mystery of God, in which all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. This was so that they would not go looking elsewhere for far-fetched ideas. It clearly takes in the whole sweep of God's purposes, hidden for a long time. It also takes in the place and interest of the Church in them, through its union with Christ, the centre of all these purposes.
- Conflict — Paul prayed in agony for people he had never met. Prayer like that is a fight, not a routine.
- Comfort — he starts where they were. Their hearts were weighed down and their thoughts clouded, so he asks God to encourage them.
- Love — hearts knit together come first. A believer left on his own may grasp the truth in his mind and never know it in his experience.
- Fullness — the goal is not a cold acknowledgment. Paul asks for full assurance and a deeper, more intimate knowledge.
- The secret — the mystery is a truth God once hid and has now told. It holds the whole sweep of His purposes, with Christ at the centre. So there is no reason to look anywhere else.
in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge.
Paul has just told the Colossians how hard he prays for people he has never met. He longs for them to know God's secret in full, and verse 3 says why that secret is worth everything: God has stored all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in it.
Commentators differ over the pronoun. Some read "in whom," which points to Christ Himself. Others read "in which," which points back to the mystery just named. One writer takes the mystery itself as the container, and warns what a believer loses by missing it:
"…to the full knowledge of the mystery of God, in which mystery (for that is the point) are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." A person may be a Christian, seeing the grace of God in Christ, and yet be comparatively poor in his thoughts and very feeble in his grasp of the counsels and ways of God. Without this it is impossible to have all these treasures.
Read the other way — "in whom" — the treasures are kept in a Person. One writer compares the ark that held Israel's treasures, and lists what is stored for us:
The realities of these are for us in Christ, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," in whom these "unsearchable riches" are safely kept against all the cunning of Satan and the weakness of the believer. Complete justification, divine grace for every step of the way, and a union in life with Him — these are the treasures, with all the spiritual blessings that go with them, safely kept for us "in Christ."
Teachers with impressive systems were offering the Colossians extra wisdom. The little word "all" shuts that door:
No doubt the Colossians thought there was remarkable wisdom and knowledge in the teachings of the philosophies of this world, the religious and moral philosophies with such great pretensions. But God would have them know this: not one single treasure of wisdom and knowledge lay outside the great secret. That secret showed what He was in His wisdom and grace, and it directed their attention to the Christ.
Another writer presses the same point against philosophy:
What could human philosophy add if they had the One in whom "all" the treasures of wisdom are hid? Philosophy applies the power of human reasoning while closing its eyes to divine revelation. Christ was that revelation, the image of the invisible God. Why follow the "teaching of men" if "all" the treasures of knowledge were in Christ? (Of course, we all have to learn maths, science and many other human insights — but these things do not make us better Christians.)
"Hidden" here is not a warning to keep out. It marks the treasures as stored, waiting for someone to come and dig:
In "the mystery of God," as we must read it if we leave out the closing words of the verse, "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." What a mine for exploration! And what a means of enrichment for the diligent believer!
Study on your own will not get these treasures:
A believer cut off from all Christian company might study his Bible in dependence on the Spirit's teaching and gain a very good mental grasp of it, but he could not grasp it by experience. We never understand it fully until we have some experience of what it means.
Finding this mystery does more than settle one argument at Colossae. It reorders how the whole Bible reads:
When we know this truth about Christ and the Church, His body, it gives a true perspective for understanding all Scripture… Only if we know our own place in the counsels of God can we rightly discern His counsels in other respects. This matters greatly if we are to be kept from the tempting lures of men. Many plausible teachings are in fact deceptive and destructive.
- One vault. God stored all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in one place: the mystery, centred in Christ. Commentators read the words as "in whom" or "in which."
- All means all. Not one treasure of wisdom or knowledge lies outside it, so philosophy and the teaching of men have nothing left to add.
- Hidden, not sealed. "Hidden" marks a mine to work, and the digging enriches the diligent believer.
- Company unlocks it. Alone, you may grasp the truth in your head. You never know it by experience until you live it with others.
- Then everything opens. Know your own place in God's purposes and all Scripture falls into perspective. That guards you from plausible teaching that destroys.