Colossians 1:2

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Colossians 1:2. To the saints and faithful brethren.—We may observe that such a phrase is characteristic of St. Paul’s later epistles; in the earlier it was “to the Church.” It seems better thus to translate than to give the meaning “to the holy and believing brethren” (see on Ephesians 1:1). Grace … and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.—Not “grace” from the Father and “peace” from the Lord Jesus Christ, as the usual benediction shows—“The grace of our Lord Jesus.” “Whatsoever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son” (John 5:19).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Colossians 1:2

Apostolic Estimate of Christian Character.

I. Suggestive phases of Christian character.—“Saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossæ.”

1. Saints.—This implies union with God and a personal participation in His righteousness. This is the root of the saintly life. Faith in Christ is the point and means of junction. Canonisation cannot make a saint. Must be saintly experience to produce saintly conduct. A holy reputation excites to action consistent with itself. Nehemiah refused to hide from threatened assassination as an act beneath his well-known character for high integrity and bravery (Nehemiah 6:11).

2. Faithful brethren which are at Colossæ.—Implies union with each other. They embraced a common faith, and held steadfastly together amid the agitations of false teachers and the defections of the wavering. Christianity blends the strangest elements. It is a foe to all national enmities and prejudices. Paul, a Jew, Timothy, a Grecian, and the Colossians, a mixture of several races, are here united in a holy and faithful brotherhood. “Here the Gentile met the Jew whom he had been accustomed to regard as an enemy of the human race; the Roman met the lying Greek sophist, the Syrian slave, the gladiator born beside the Danube. In brotherhood they met, the natural birth and kindred of each forgotten, the baptism alone remembered in which they had been born again to God and to each other” (Ecce Homo).

3. The sublime origin of the Christian character.—“In Christ.” Character is the development and crystallisation of a life. The character of the blossom and fruit is decided by the vital energy in the tree. Christ is the unfathomable fount of all spiritual life; the ideal pattern and formative force of a perfect character. He is the centre and bond of all true brotherhood.

II. The salutation supplicates the bestowment of highest divine blessings.—

1. Grace. A term of vast significance, inclusive of all the blessings that can flow from the superabundant and free favour of God. Grace is the source of all temporal good—life, health, preservation, success, felicity; and of all spiritual benefactions—pardon, soul-rest, guidance, strength, deliverance, purity, final triumph. The generosity of God is illimitable.

2. Peace.—Grace expresses the spirit and fulness in which divine manifestations come to us; peace the result they accomplish in us. Peace with God. Sin has thrown human nature into a state of discord and enmity. The reception of grace must ever precede the enjoyment of peace. The universal mistake is, in first seeking, through many avenues, the happiness which peace with God alone can bring, instead of accepting humbly, penitently, believingly, the grace of God in Christ. Peace with each other—peace in the Church. How great a blessing is this! One turbulent spirit can ruffle the tranquillity of thousands.

3. The source of the blessings desired.—“From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Father’s love and the Son’s work are the sole source and cause of every blessing to humanity, while the Holy Spirit is the agent of their communication. The Trinity is ever harmonious in acts of beneficence; the divine fountain is inexhaustible.

Learn.—

1. The broad, deep charity of the apostolic spirit.

2. The scope and temper of the prayers we should offer for the race.