Colossians 2:18

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, BEGUILE YOU OF YOUR REWARD, [ katabrabeuetoo (G2603 ] - literally, 'to adjudge a prize out of hostility away from him who deserves it' (Trench). This defrauding of their prize the Colossians would suffer, by letting any self-constituted judge (i:e., false teacher) draw them away from Christ, "the righteous Judge" and Awarder of the prize (Philippians 3:14; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 4:8;...

18._Let no one take from you the palm. _(389) He alludes to runners, or wrestlers, to whom the _palm _was assigned, on condition of their not giving way in the middle of the course, or after the contest had been commenced. He admonishes them, therefore, that the false apostles aimed at nothing else than to snatch away from them the palm, inasmuch as they draw them aside from the rectitude of their course. Hence it follows that they must be shunned as the most injurious pests. The passage is also carefully to be marked as intimating, that all those who draw us aside from the simplicity of Christ cheat us out of the _prize of our high calling_. (Philippians 3:14.) _Desirous in humility. _Something must be understood; hence I have, inserted in the text _id facere _, (_to do it_.) For he points out the kind of danger which

18-23 It looked like humility to apply to angels, as if men were conscious of their unworthiness to speak directly to God. But it is not warrantable; it is taking that honour which is due to Christ only, and giving it to a creature. There really was pride in this seeming humility. Those who worship angels, disclaim Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man. It is an insult to Christ, who is the Head of the church, to use any intercessors but him. When men let go their hold of Christ, they catch at what will stand them in no stead. The body of Christ is a growing body. And true believers cannot live in the fashions of the world. True wisdom is, to keep close to the appointments of the gospel; in entire subjection to Christ, who is the only Head of his church. Self-imposed sufferings and fastings, might have a show of uncommon spirituality and willingness for suffering, but thi...

Verse 18. _LET NO MAN BEGUILE YOU_] μηδειςυμαςκαταβραβευετω. Let no man take the _prize_ from you which the βραβευς, _brabeus_, or judge in the contests, has assigned you, in consequence of your having obtained the victory. This any reader will see, is an allusion to the Olympic and Isthmian games, and to the prizes assigned to these who had obtained the victory in one or more of the contests which there took place. The Colossians had fought and conquered under the direction of Christ, and he, as the sole judge in this contest, had assigned to them the prize; the false teachers, affecting great modesty, humility, and sanctity, endeavoured to turn them aside from the Gospel, and to induce them to end in the _flesh_ who had begun in the _Spirit_. Against these the apostle warns them. _IN A VOLUNTARY HUMILITY AND WORSHIPING OF ANGELS_] This is a difficult passage, and in order to explain...

LET NO MAN BEGUILE YOU OF YOUR REWARD - Margin, judge against you. The word used here - καταβραβεύω katabrabeuō - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is a word which was employed with reference to the distribution of prizes at the Grecian games, and means, to give the prize against anyone, to deprive of the palm. Hence, it means to deprive of a due reward: and the sense here is, that they were to be on their guard lest the “reward” - the crown of victory to which they looked forward - should be wrested from them by the arts of others. That would be done if they should be persuaded to turn back, or to falter in the race. The only way to secure the prize was to hold on in the race which they then were running; but if they yielded to the philosophy of the Greeks, and the teachings of the Jews, they would be defrauded of this reward as certainly as a racer at the games would if th...

EXPOSITION COLOSSIANS 2:1 SECTION IV. THE APOSTLE'S CONCERN FOR THE COLOSSI. AN CHURCH. So far the contents of the letter have been of a general and preparatory character. New the writer begins to indicate the special purpose he has in view by declaring, in connection with his concern for the welfare of the Gentile Churches at large (Colossians 1:24), _the deep anxiety which he at present feels respecting the Colossian and neighbouring Churches._ COLOSSIANS 2:1...

LET NO MAN BEGUILE YOU OF YOUR REWARD,.... Or prize; the allusion is to the Olympic games, one of which was running races; in which the stadium, or race plot was fixed, a mark set up to look and run unto, a corruptible crown proposed to be run for, and which was held by one who sat as judge, and determined who got the victory, and to whom the crown belonged; these judges sometimes acted the unfair part, and defrauded the victors of their proper right, and to such the apostle compares the false teachers: the Christian's reward, or prize he is running for, is the incorruptible and never fading crown of glory, life, and righteousness; the race plot is the Christian life, spent in the exercise of grace, and discharge of duty, and in holding fast, and holding out in a profession of faith unto the end; the mark he looks at, and presses towards, is Jesus Christ; and his great concern, the apost...

Colossians 2:1. _For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;_ Paul had not met these Colossian Christians, but he had heard of their faith, and hope, and love, and he so desired their good that he had a continual care for them in his heart. He carried that care to God in prayer, yet he still bore them in loving remembrance. They were always on his heart as a sick child is ever on the heart of its mother. Colossians 2:2. _That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ._ In whom are hid all the treasures of wi

INTRUDING INTO THOSE THINGS The errorists against whom Paul warns the Colossians, and against whom, in principle, the warning has perpetual significance, were called "Gnostics," from the Greek, "gnosis", meaning "knowledge." These Gnostics "came most keenly into conflict with the exalted rank and redeeming rank of Christ, to whom they did not leave His full divine dignity, but assigned to Him merely the highest rank in the order of spirits, while they exalted angels as concerned in bringing the Messianic salvation." -- H.A.W. Meyer. Paul's characteristic word, in Colossians, for the divine revelation is the Greek, "epignosis", that is, "full knowledge", (Colossians 1:9); (Colossians 1:10); ...

COLOSSIANS 2:18 a[ {B} The reading a[ is strongly supported by î46 and good representatives of the Alexandrian and the Western types of the text (a* A B D* I 33 1739 itd copsa, bo Speculum _al_). Apparently the negative (either ouvk in F G or mh, in ac C Dc K P Y 614 itar, f, g, mon, o vg syrp, h goth arm _al_) was added by copyists who either misunderstood the sense of evmbateu,wn or wished to enhance the polemical nuance that is carried on by the following eivkh|/ fusiou,menoj...