Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (33)

3. _The conflict was deadly._--Then came the final hour--the great crisis when the power of darkness made itself felt, when the prince of this world threw his last fatal shaft and asserted his tyranny (Luke xxii. 53; John xii. 30). The closing act in the conflict began with the agony of Gethsemane; it ended with the cross of Calvary. The Son of God expires on the accursed tree. But, lo! strange reversal of all human conflicts--the moment of apparent defeat is the moment of victory! By dying Christ has conquered death and wrested from the enemy his most potent weapon of terror. The principalities and powers of evil, that clung around the humanity of Christ like a fatal Nessus tunic, were _spoiled_--torn off and cast aside for ever. Evil assailed the great Redeemer from without, but never penetrated Him as it does humanity. In the act of dying the crucified One stripped off and flung to the ground the great potentates of evil never more to be in the ascendant.

+III. The triumph of the cross was signal and complete.+--1. _It was signal._ "He made a show of them openly." The overthrow of the principalities and powers of evil was boldly declared to the universe. They were declared to be liars, traitors, deceivers, usurpers, and murderers! It was not a private but a public victory, in which the universe was interested, and in which all men may well rejoice. The victory of mankind is involved in the victory of Christ. In His cross we too are divested of the poisonous, clinging garments of temptation, sin, and death--we spoil, strip off, put away from us the powers of evil, and are liberated from the dominion of the flesh.

2. _It was complete._--"Triumphing over them in it." Christ proved Himself on the cross the Conqueror of death and hell. Here the paradox of the Crucifixion is placed in the strongest light--triumph in helplessness, glory in shame, the vanquished become the conqueror. The gloom of the convict's gibbet is transformed into the splendour of the victor's chariot. In the cross we see the greatest triumph of our Immanuel--the law fulfilled; God's moral government vindicated; death robbed of its prey; Satan, "the prince of this world" cast out; principalities and powers dragged in procession as captives; a show of them boldly made; the imprisoned world set free; and the final victory over every enemy assured.

+Lessons.+--1. _Christ has conquered the powers of evil._ 2. _To the believer ultimate victory is certain._ 3. _Keep up a brave heart in the fiercest conflict._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 16, 17.

_The Ceremonial and the Real in Religion._

After dealing with the speculative theories so busily propagated by the false teachers at Colossæ, the apostle descends from the height of his lofty argument, and with incomparable force sweeps away the whole group of errors which overrated an excessive ritualism and insisted on a rigorous asceticism. The existence of the ceremonial in religion is a confession of the imperfection of our nature; and the more rudimentary the ceremonial, the lower it supposes our condition. The ceremonial foreshadows the real and is intended to help in attaining it. In the nature of things, therefore, the ceremonial is but temporary. When it puts man in possession of the real it vanishes. The shadow is absorbed in the substance. To compel man to find salvation in the ceremonial, when he already possesses the real, is a retrogression and an injustice. The liberty of the Gospel places the believer above the slavery of external ordinances and furnishes him with a law--the law of a Christianised conscience--as to their use or neglect.

+I. That the ceremonial in religion can form no just basis for individual condemnation.+--"Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat," etc. (ver. 16). The Mosaic law enforced certain injunctions concerning eating and drinking. It gave minute directions as to the animals that were to be eaten, making a distinction between the clean and the unclean. As to drinking, the priests were strictly forbidden the use of wine on the eve of solemn public duty; and the vow of the Nazarites required entire abstinence from the fruit of the vine. The tendency of the Jews was to multiply these distinctions and prohibitions, and to exalt them into undue importance. The reference to special days embraces the collective periodical feasts and sacred seasons of the Levitical ritual--the yearly, monthly, and weekly celebrations. The term _holy day_ would include the festivals of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles respectively. The _new moon_ alludes to the monthly celebrations mentioned (Num. x. 10, xxviii. 11). The _Sabbath days_ refer to the weekly solemnities and services of the seventh day. The Jews assumed that the obligation of these regulations was permanent, and their observance essential to the salvation of the Christian believer. The Gospel teaches that the observance or non-observance of these ceremonial rites is no just ground for judging each other. We are not justified in condemning any one for neglecting them, or to think any better of one who reverently observes them. The essence of religion does not consist in the outward form, but in the inward spirit--not in the ceremonial, but in the real. "Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (ver. 17).

+II. That the ceremonial in religion is typical of the real.+--"Which are a shadow of things to come" (ver. 17). Ceremonies have their place in the culture of mankind, and in their legitimate sphere they are important. They are adapted to the infant stage in the development of the race. They sketch out the bold, rough outlines of truths that are in a half-formed embryotic state. They are shadows projected across the disc of our mental vision--of grand realities which are ever advancing into clearer view. They are typical of the existence and certain manifestation of deeper and unchangeable truths. They are predictive of things to come. The great yearly festival of the Passover typified the forgiveness of sins by the shedding of the precious blood of Christ. The Pentecost, or feast of the firstfruits, sets forth the sustenance and ample provision God has made for the soul. The feast of Tabernacles was a significant reminder of God's providential guidance and fatherly care of human life. The new moon, or first day of the month, with its usual service, impressed on the minds of the people the truth that Jehovah, the Ruler of the seasons, was the God of providence as well as of creation. The weekly Sabbath, with its grateful rest, was expressly instituted to commemorate the rest of God after the exercise of His creative energy. Then the ordinary sacrifices were doubled, and the shewbread renewed, to indicate that God is the source and sustenance of our life. And so, the whole Mosaic law was a type and presage of the Gospel. The spiritually enlightened look through the outward and visible symbol to the great truth signified. The ceremonial is valuable only as it conducts to the real.

+III. That the ceremonial in religion is abolished and rendered nugatory by the real.+--"But the body is of Christ" (ver. 17). When the substance appears, the shadow is swallowed up. As the shadows are to the body, so were the types and ceremonies of the law to Christ. They were figures of evangelical blessings; but the truth, the reality, and abiding substance of them are found in the person, work, and salvation of Christ. All the grand truths prefigured by the ancient Mosaic ritual are embodied in Christ. He gives the fullest personal representation of Jehovah as the God of nature, providence, and redemption, at once the Author and the Ruler of the spiritual life. In Christ, therefore, as the substance and Antitype, all shadow and symbol disappear. It is a dangerous infatuation to snatch at the shadow and cling to it when we may embrace and rest in the sufficiency of the substance. This is to restore the cancelled handwriting and nullify the splendid triumph of the cross. In Christ the ceremonial is effete, powerless, dead. He only is the changeless, eternal, all-satisfying real.

+Lessons.+--1. _Learn to exercise the spirit of Christian forbearance in external observances._ 2. _Be careful not to rest in the ceremonial._ 3. _Christ alone can satisfy the deepest craving of the soul._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 16, 17. _The Shadow and the Substance of the Sabbath._

+I. The transient shadow which has passed away.+--The Sabbath as a sign between God and the Israelites, marking them off from all other nations by its observance--as a mere Jewish institution.

+II. The permanent substance which cannot pass.+--"The body is of Christ"--the Spirit of Christ is the fulfilment of the law. To have the Spirit of Christ is to have fulfilled the law. Apply this to Sabbath observance.--_F. W. Robertson._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 18, 19.

_The Seductive Peril of a False Philosophy._

The apostle had warned the Colossians against the dangerous consequences of attaching too much importance to the ceremonial in religion, inasmuch as it was the substitution of the shadow for the substance. He now reveals the peril of being seduced by the theological error that insisted on interposition of angel mediators, which was the preference of an inferior member to the Head. In this verse the writer distinctly warns the Colossian Christians against the peril that threatened them and exposes the presumptuous speculations of a false philosophy.

+I. That the teachings of a false philosophy threaten to rob the believer of his most coveted reward.+--"Let no man beguile you of your reward" (ver. 18). The Christian's career is a race; the present world is the stadium, or racecourse; Christ is the umpire--the dispenser of rewards; eternal life is the victor's prize. The Colossians were in a fair way for winning the prize; they had duly entered the lists; they were contending bravely; but the false teachers unhappily crossed their path, sought to impede their progress, and to rob them of their reward. Error is subtle in its influence and pernicious in its effects. Many erroneous opinions may possibly be held without invalidating the salvation of the soul; but any error that in any degree depreciates our estimate of Christ and interrupts the advance of our Christian life is a robbery. It may be said that the dangerous speculations of a false philosophy are confined only to a few--the higher circle of thinkers. That is bad enough. But what is damaging the higher order of intellects will by-and-by reach the lower and work its mischief there. There is need for uninterrupted vigilance.

+II. That a false philosophy advocates the most presumptuous and perilous speculations.+--1. _It affects a spurious humility._ God is unknowable to the limited and uncertain powers of man; He is too high to be accessible, and too much absorbed in loftier matters to concern Himself about individual man. He can be approached only through inferior beings, and their assistance should be humbly sought. So it reasons. But this humility was voluntary, self-induced, and was in reality another form of high spiritual pride. Humility, when it becomes self-conscious, ceases to have any value.

2. _It invents a dangerous system of angelolatry._--"Worshipping of angels" (ver. 18). The Jews were fond of philosophising about the dignity, offices, and ranks of the angelic powers; and many held the opinion that they were messengers who presented our prayers to God. The false teachers made the most of the authority they could derive from Jewish sources. They would tell how the law was given by the disposition of angels--that angels conducted the Israelites through the wilderness, and on various occasions appeared to patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. They would dwell on the weakness of man and his distance from God and insist that homage should be paid to these angelic messengers as necessary mediators. Alas, how fatal has been the influence through the centuries of this delusive angelolatry! The apostle here condemns it, and thus sweeps away all ground for the Christ-dishonouring practices of invocation of saints and the worship of the Virgin.

3. _It pretends to a knowledge of the mysterious._--"Intruding into those things which he hath not seen" (ver. 18). Man is everywhere circled with mystery. It is one of the saddest moments of life when he first becomes conscious of the limitation of his own powers, and of his utter inability to fathom the mysteries which seem to invite his inquiry while they baffle his attempt. Locke somewhere says, a worm in the drawer of a cabinet, shut up in its tiny enclosure, might as well pretend to guess at the construction of the vast universe, as mortal man ventures to speculate about the unseen world, except so far as revealed for purposes of salvation. But fools will rush in where angels fear to tread. The boast of possessing a profound knowledge of the mysterious is one of the marks of a false philosophy.

4. _It is inflated with an excessive pride._--"Vainly puffed up by its fleshly mind" (ver. 18). The carnal mind, which is enmity against God, rises to a pitch of reckless daring in its inventions, and revelling in its own creative genius, is vainly puffed up with a conceit of novelty and with a fancied superiority over the humbler disciple. There is no state more dangerous than this or more difficult to change. It is proof against every ordinary method of recovery. The proud man lives "half-way down the slope to hell." God only can break the delusive snare, humble the soul, and revoke its threatened doom.

+III. That a false philosophy ignores the Divine source of all spiritual increase.+--1. _Christ is the great Head of the Church._ He is the centre of its unity, the primal source of its life, authority, and influence. He founded the Church, and gave it shape, symmetry, and durableness. He alone is supreme--the Alpha and Omega--the living and only Head. To ignore Him is to forfeit the substantial for the shadowy--the rock for the precarious footing of the crumbling shale.

2. _The Church is vitally and essentially united to Christ._--"From which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together" (ver. 19). As the members of the human frame are joined to the head, and derive life, motion, and sensation from it by means of arteries, veins, nerves, and other attachments, so the spiritual members of Christ are knit to Him by invisible joints and bands, and depend on Him for sustenance, character, and influence.

3. _The vital union of the Church with Christ is the condition of spiritual increase._--"Increaseth with the increase of God" (ver. 19). Christ is the Divine source of increase, and the Church can grow only as it receives nourishment from Him. The growth corresponds with its nature--it is Divine; it increaseth with the increase of God. There may be a morbid increase, as there may be an unnatural enlargement of some part of the human body; but it is only the excessive inflation of a worldly splendour and ecclesiastical pretension. Like Jonah's gourd, such a growth may disappear as rapidly as it came. The true increase is that which comes from God, of which He is the source, and active, sustaining influence, and which advances in harmony with His will and purpose. Such an increase can be secured only by vital union with Christ.

+Lessons.+--1. _A false philosophy distorts the grandest truths._ 2. _A false philosophy substitutes for truth the most perilous speculations._ 3. _Against the teachings of a false philosophy be ever on your guard._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 18. _Philosophic Vagaries_--

+I. Making pretence of superior knowledge.+

+II. Affecting a spurious humility in worship.+

+III. Inflated with pride.+

+IV Dangerous to those sincerely seeking the truth.+

Ver. 19. _How a Church lives and grows._

+I. The source of all the life of the body.+--Christ is the Head, therefore the source from which all parts of the body partake of a common life. There are three symbols employed to represent the union of Christ with His Church--the vine, the body, and the marriage bond.

+II. The various and harmonious action of all the parts.+--1. _From Jesus comes all nourishment of the Divine life, even when we think that we instruct or stimulate each other._ 2. _From Jesus comes the oneness of the body._

+III. The consequent increase of the whole.+--1. _The increase of life in the Church, both as a community and in its separate elements, depends on the harmonious activity of all the parts._ 2. _Is dependent of the activity of all, and sadly hampered when some are idle._ 3. _Depends on its vitality within and on the concurrent activity of all its members._ 4. _Depends not only on the action of all its parts, but on their health and vitality._ 5. _There is an increase which is not the increase of God._

+IV. The personal hold of Jesus Christ which is the condition of all life and growth.+--A firm, almost desperate clutch in which Love and Need, like two hands, clasp Him and will not let Him go. Such tenacious grip implies the adhesive energy of the whole nature--the mind laying hold on truth, the heart clinging to love, the will submitting to authority.--_A. Maclaren._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20-23.

_The Ceremonial in Religion Transitory and Unsatisfying._

The apostle returns again to the question of outward observances. He saw the extreme danger with which the Colossians were threatened from that source, and before turning to other matters in his epistle he lifts up a warning voice as for the last time.

+I. That the ceremonial in religion is simply elementary.+--"The rudiments of the world" (ver. 20). The ceremonial in religion is the alphabetical stage, suited only to the world's infancy and to the crudest condition in human development. It is the childish period which, with all its toys and pictures and gewgaws, is put away when spiritual manhood is attained. It is in its nature transitory and imperfect. It conveys knowledge but in part; and when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part is done away.

+II. The ceremonial in religion is unworthy the submission of the Christian believer.+--1. _The believer is liberated from the slavery of the ceremonial._ He is "dead with Christ" (ver. 20). As Christ by His death cancelled the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and vanquished Satan and all his hosts, so the believer, united with Christ in His death, shares in the triumph of that death. He is free; he rises into a new life, not under the tyranny of the old law, with its demands and penalties, but in allegiance to Christ. He has passed into another sphere of existence. Worldly ordinances have ceased to have any value for him, because his worldly life is ended. They belong to the realm of the transitory and perishable; he has been translated into the realm of the free and the eternal.

2. _To return to the ceremonial is to forfeit Christian liberty._--"Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" (ver. 20). It is to ignore all progress, to impugn the reality of the change wrought in the soul by spiritual baptism, to close one's eyes to the altered state of things into which he has been introduced, and to submit again to the galling yoke of legal observances and human traditions which never had Divine sanction and from which he had been emancipated. It is a denial of his Christianity to subject himself again to their tyranny--to return once more to the dominion of the world. It is giving up the substance for the shadow. It is a deliberate self-degradation to the most abject and pitiable slavery. It is supposed that many of the ascetic practices of the false teachers at Colossæ were borrowed from the Pythagoreans. Their philosophy was all on the side of prohibitions, abstinences, a forced celibacy, the unlawfulness of animal food, the possibility of attaining perfection by neglecting the body, under the delusion that evil resided in matter.

+III. The ceremonial in religion, in its main features, is universally the same.+--1. _It is the same in its dictatorial prohibitions._ "Touch not; taste not; handle not" (ver. 21). Such is the arrogant language of a narrow, bigoted, and imperious superstition. It is an instruction to observe the gradual and insidious manner in which it obtains the mastery over the human conscience. _Touch not:_ it prohibits even a light partaking of some meat or drink. _Taste not:_ the prohibition is extended, so that it becomes a crime even to taste, though refusing to eat. _Handle not:_ to come in contact with the forbidden object, even in the handling, is a dreadful sacrilege. So is it ever with the clamorous demands of a proud, assumptious ritualism. There is no end to the unauthorised prohibitions with which it seeks to bind the conscience.

2. _It is the same in its undue exaltation of the external and transitory._--"Which all are to perish with the using" (ver. 22). The very eating and drinking of them destroys them. They are consumed in the using; and in order to nourish us they themselves perish--a plain proof that all the benefit we receive from them respects only our physical and mortal life. What folly is it to insist on a scrupulous avoidance or observance of externals in order to salvation! You claim an affinity with the eternal, and it is unworthy of your glorious destiny to be absorbed with the worship of the perishable.

3. _It is the same in its human origin._--"After the commandments and doctrines of men" (ver. 22). A commandment is a precept; a doctrine is the principle or truth on which it is based. The one furnishes a direction, the other the reason on which the direction rests. The ceremonial in religion is an accumulation of the commandments and doctrines of men. Depending on human authority, it has no value in itself; and when it is made obligatory in order to human salvation, it is an impious insult to Christ and an intolerable servitude to man. The commandments of men, having no solid doctrines to rest upon, are transitory and illusory.

+IV. The ceremonial in religion can never satisfy the many-sided wants of humanity.+--1. _It pretends to a wisdom it does not possess._ (1) In self-imposed methods of worship. "Which things have, indeed, a show of wisdom in will-worship" (ver. 23). It insists on certain distinctions of meats and drinks; on abstinence from this or that kind of food; on certain ritual observances as necessary in order to render due homage to God. The enthusiast for the ceremonial argues that he who only does what God positively demands does only what is common; but he who goes beyond, and submits to additional observances, reaches a higher degree of saintliness. This is will-worship, which has peculiar charms for the corrupt tendencies of our depraved nature. The works of supererogation it invents are pleasanter than the holy, humble, adoring worship of God through the blood of the cross. (2) In the affectation of a spurious humility. "In humility" (ver. 23). It is a pretence of wisdom to renounce all worldly splendour and profess to live in poverty and seclusion. But at the root of this profession the most pernicious pride may lurk. A self-conscious and dramatically acted humility is the most degrading and detestable. (3) In an unjustifiable indifference to bodily wants. "And neglecting of the body" (ver. 23). The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and is to be honoured and cherished, and all its just wants satisfied, in order that its best powers may be employed in the service of God. But the abuse of the body in starvation, painful macerations, and squalid neglect is a folly and a sin.

2. _It is of no value in preventing the indulgence of the flesh._--"Not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh" (ver. 23). The radical error of the ascetic lies in his belief that evil resides in matter. Not the body, but the soul, is the source of sin: the body is depraved because the soul is depraved. Sin exists as a thought and conception of the heart before it exists as an act of the flesh. No amount of outward flagellation, or of abstinence from needful food, will satisfy the natural wants of the body, or destroy its sinful tendencies. The attempt to be virtuous by afflicting the body is like battering the outwork while the main citadel remains untouched. The outward man can never satisfy the complicated needs of man's nature. First bring the soul into a right relation to God, and, with the aid of Divine grace, it will control all the outgoings of the flesh.

+Lessons.+--1. _The ceremonial has its place in religion, and therefore should not be despised._ 2. _The believer is raised above the power of the ceremonial in religion, and therefore should not be subject to it._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 20. _Principles above Rules; or, Wheat is better than Bread._--Bread may feed us for the moment, but when once eaten it is gone for ever. Wheat on the contrary will bear seed, increase, and multiply. Every rule is taken from a principle, as a loaf of bread is made from wheat. It is right to enforce the principle rather than the action, because a good principle is sure of producing good actions. Seeming goodness is not better than religion; precept is not better than principle.--_A. W. Hare._

Vers. 21-23. _Asceticism_--

+I. Multiplies unnecessary restriction.+

+II. Is a species of self-worship.+

+III. Is unjust to the body.+

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER III.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Seek those things that are above.+--Our Lord says that as He was "from above," so His disbelieving hearers were "from beneath," which He interprets as "of this world" (John viii. 23, 24). The apostle in like manner in the next verse opposes the "things above" to "things on earth."

Ver. 3. +Your life is hid with Christ in God.+--You are much more likely to have it kept pure by having it in Christ than by setting round it a hedge of "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not."

Ver. 5. +Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.+--"Quite so!" the heretic teacher might say; "this is just what we ourselves advise." "Yes," rejoins the apostle; "but let us know what it is we are to slaughter." It is no hewing and hacking of the body, but what is as much more difficult as it is noble--the excision or eradication of evil thoughts (Matt. xv. 19, 20). +Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence.+--R.V. "passion, evil desire." The former of these seems to indicate the corrupt conditions from which the latter springs. +Covetousness, which is idolatry.+--"Covetousness," or "having more." There is many a man, beside the clown in _Twelfth Night,_ who says, "I would not have you to think my _desire of having_ is the sin of covetousness." The full drag can afford to sacrifice (Hab. i. 16).

Ver. 8. +Anger, wrath.+--The former is the smouldering fire, the latter the fierce out-leaping flame. +Malice, blasphemy.+--The former is the vicious disposition, the latter the manifestation of it in speech that is meant to inflict injury. +Filthy communication+--One word in the original; R.V. gives it as "shameful speaking." The word does not occur again in the New Testament. It means scurrilous or obscene speech. A glimpse of Eastern life helps us to understand the frequent injunctions as to restraint of the tongue in the New Testament. Dr. Norman Macleod says: "In vehemence of gesticulation, in genuine power of lip and lung to fill the air with a roar of incomprehensible exclamations, nothing on earth, so long as the body retains its present arrangement of muscles and nervous vitality, can surpass the Egyptians and their language." But the same thing is witnessed of other Eastern tongues.

Ver. 9. +Lie not one to another.+--"Very elementary teaching," we should be inclined to say. Whether there was any special tendency to this vice in the Colossian converts we cannot know.

Ver. 12. +Bowels of mercies.+--R.V. "a heart of compassion." A case of concrete for abstract. The physical effect of pity lies at the bottom of the phrase.

Ver. 13. +Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.+--Literally it would be, "Bearing with one another, and dealing graciously with yourselves"; for not only the verbs but the pronouns also change with a delicate shade of meaning. Forbearance, like a peace-making angel, passes to and fro between the incensed parties. +Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.+--The pattern of all graciousness is Christ. See His parable (Matt. xviii. 33).

Ver. 14. +Above all these things put on charity.+--Reminding us of the exalted place which the queenly virtue holds in St. Paul's triad. As the outermost dress of an Oriental was perhaps that which was most serviceable, so whatever else is put on, "above everything" love must be remembered. +Which is the bond of perfectness.+--"That in which all the virtues are so bound together that perfection is the result and not one of them is wanting to that perfection" (_Grimm_).

Ver. 15. +And let the peace of God rule in your hearts.+--R.V. margin, "arbitrate." We met the verb for "rule" in ch. ii. 18, but with a prefix "against." "Let the peace of God be umpire," says the apostle, in every case of uncertainty and hesitation. He who slept on Galilee's stormy waters had but to say, "Peace! Be still!" and there was a great calm. He said, "My peace I leave with you"; and reckless of consequences the men who received it amazed the authorities by the boldness of their question, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye" (Acts iv. 19).

Ver. 16. +Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.+--The word for "dwell in" is the same which assures the believer of an indwelling power which shall quicken the mortal body, and which describes the Divine act of grace. "I will dwell in them." +In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.+--See on Eph. v. 18, 19. The same composition may be either psalm, hymn, or spiritual song. The first may be a technical word, as in Luke xxiv. 44. It indicates a song accompanied by a stringed instrument. A hymn is a song in praise of some one, exalting the character and attributes. The third term is the most comprehensive, and to it, with good reason, St. Paul prefixes "spiritual." Bacchanalian songs were common enough about Colossæ with their noisy, unhallowed mirth. St. Paul, like St. James, would not object to his readers being merry if the spiritual joys--

"From out their hearts arise
And speak and sparkle in their eyes
And vibrate on their tongues."

Ver. 18. +As it is fit in the Lord.+--See Eph. v. 22. The feeling of propriety St. Paul emphasises here and limits it "in the Lord."

Ver. 19. +Be not bitter against them.+--As love in its most degraded form might alternate with paroxysms of anger, St. Paul uses the nobler word for Christian love which casts out hatred as well as fear.

Ver. 20. +For this is well-pleasing.+--Eph. vi. 1: "This is right." What in Ephesians is regarded as an equitable due from child to parent is here looked at in another light. The best commentary is Luke ii. 51, 52. The child Jesus was _subject_ to his parents and increased _in favour with God._

Ver. 21. +Fathers, provoke not your children.+--The word for "provoke" is not the same as in Eph. vi. 4. There the word is "do not exasperate." Here it is "do not irritate." The difficulty of discriminating between them may perhaps show how near the original words are in meaning. "Irritation is the first consequence of being too exacting with children, and irritation leads to moroseness" (_Lightfoot_). +Lest they be discouraged.+--Broken-spirited. It is a sad sight to see a man for whom the stress of life has been too much, but to see a child cowed and dejected--the world has no sadder spectacle.

Ver. 23. +Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily.+--Eph. vi. 7, "With good will doing service." R.V. gives the distinction which is obliterated by "do, do" of A.V. "Whatsoever ye do, work heartily" (margin, "from the soul").

Ver. 25. +He that doeth wrong.+--The participle of the original points to the habitual practice of wrong-doing. +There is no respect of persons.+--In the Ephesian letter this consideration is urged upon the masters as it is here upon the slaves. Both are amenable to the same authority.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.

_The Higher Aspirations of the Soul._

You have seen the clouds gather in the sky and settle on the hills. The thunder mutters, the rain falls, and the scene is one of storm, confusion, and darkness. Suddenly the whole aspect of the heavens is changed. A blaze of light springs up among the hills; the storm ceases; the gloom is swept away; and the outlook is one of tranquillity, of triumph, and of splendour. Similar to this is the striking change between the close of the last chapter of this epistle and the beginning of the present one. The grave warnings against the sombre errors of a false philosophy, and the supposed meritorious torturings of the body, which occupy a considerable part of the second chapter, give place in the opening of the third chapter to a luminous and inspiring picture of the glorious privileges and lofty destiny of the believing soul. These verses teach that, being raised by Christ into newness of life, the soul should aspire to the attainment of the highest blessings.

+I. The distinguished relation in which the believing soul stands to Christ.+--"Risen with Christ" (ver. 1).

1. _This relation implies the living union of the soul with Christ._--The apostle had spoken of the soul as dying with Christ, as buried with Him, as quickened with Him; and now he advances another step, and declares that it is also raised with Him. The union between the believer and Christ was so complete that he participates with Christ in all He has done. "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. vi. 4). As the dead body of the man cast into the sepulchre of Elisha revived and stood up the moment it touched the bones of the prophet (2 Kings xiii. 21), so the soul, dead in trespasses and sins, is quickened by believing contact with Christ, and rises into a higher and more glorious life.

2. _This relation indicates the nature and tendencies of the soul._--"Risen with Christ: . . . set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth" (vers. 1, 2). The change involved in union with Christ affects man's whole nature. It affects not only his practical conduct, but also his intellectual conceptions. He is translated from earth to heaven; and with this translation his point of view is altered, his standard of judgment wholly changed. His aspirations spurn the earthly and transitory, and soar towards the heavenly and eternal. The flies that sport upon the summer stream, while they plunge their bodies in the water, are careful not to wet their wings, so that they may fly again into the sunny air. So, while we are necessarily immersed in "things on the earth," we should take heed that the wings of our soul are not so clogged as to retard our flight to heaven.

+II. The sublime objects of the soul's higher aspirations.+--"Things above." (ver. 2).

1. _Christ is above._--"Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (ver. 1). This indicates that Christ is exalted to the highest dignity. He is above all angelic powers, whatever their position or rank. The right hand of God also indicates the right hand of power. Thence Christ wields all the authority and power of universal government. "Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour." He reigns on high in order to carry out to a glorious consummation the work He accomplished on the cross. To Him all hearts turn for love and blessedness, as the flowers turn to the sun. The rudiments of the world have no longer any power to satisfy. The soul ascends to heaven, for where the treasure is there will be the heart also; and the flow of time is rapidly hurrying us on to the moment when we shall be--

"Caught up to share
The triumph of our Lord."

2. _The source of the greatest spiritual blessings is above._--When Christ ascended into the heavens He received gifts for men; and from His lofty throne He delights to distribute those gifts to the needy sons of men. Thence we receive pardon, the conscious favour of God, holiness of character, comfort in every time of distress, and hope to light the pathway of the future. Of all the blessings laid up for us above, the highest and the best is that which in itself includes all others--the gift of the Holy Ghost. All, all we want is there.

3. _The heavenly home is above._--There is the abode of peace and purity; there temptation has no power, and suffering and sorrow can never enter; there the Saviour reveals His glories and diffuses the joy of His radiant presence; there all the members of the Father's family assemble from every part of the globe, never more to separate. The soul, burdened with the cares of life, and troubled with multiplied disappointments, yearns for the rest of the heavenly home. The things on the earth can never satisfy the wants of the soul; they are unsuited to it; they are beneath it; and, liberated from their trammels by the resurrection power of the Christ, it seeks its true happiness above the stars.

+III. The paramount duty of the soul to aspire to the highest good.+--Seek, set "your affections on things above" (ver. 1). A similar expression repeated for the emphasis. You are not only to _seek_ heaven, but also to _think_ heaven. The understanding must be engaged in duly estimating the value of heavenly things, the will in preferring them above all things earthly, the affections in embracing them as the objects to be most evidently desired and loved; in fact, all the powers of the soul must be constantly exercised in the search. The soul, raised from the death of sin, is ever responding to the attractive influence of its risen Lord. "Being thus already risen, every motion of grace is the struggle of the soul for the final consummation--the bird is caged, but the wings are free to flutter within their prison." The soul is now willing, cheerfully and faithfully, to follow the call of duty, whatever it may entail.

"Oft where she leads, thy blood must mark thy footsteps;
Oft where she leads, thy head must bear the storm,
And thy shrunk form endure heat, cold, and hunger;
But she will guide thee up to noble heights,
Which he who gains seems native of the sky;
While earthly things lie stretched beneath his feet,
Diminished, shrunk, and valueless."

+Lessons.+--1. _The soul is endowed with vast powers and capable of the highest destiny._ 2. _It is sad to witness thousands whose souls rise no higher than the things on the earth._ 3. _The soul can realise its highest aspirations only as it is risen with Christ._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 1. _Seeking the Things Above._

+I. Contemplate the sublime object+--the state of future blessedness of believers. 1. _The perfection of character they exhibit._ 2. _The exercises in which they shall be engaged._ 3. _The happiness in which they participate._ 4. _The friendships they share._

+II. The conduct enjoined upon us.+--"Seek those things." 1. _Implies belief in their existence._ 2. _That attention is directed much towards them._ 3. _Set our attachment upon them._ 4. _Use diligent and persevering exertions to obtain them._

+III. Motives to this conduct.+--1. _A regard to consistency._ 2. _The reasonableness of the duty._ 3. _Present advantages._ 4. _Because they are the scene in which are displayed Christ's personal presence and glory._

_Risen with Christ._

+I. Christianity begins where everything else ends: it begins with
death.+

+II. After dying to sin we are to begin to live in good earnest.+

+III. The Christian toils, labours, and tasks his mind for the glory
of God and the good of others.+

+IV. The true Christian seeks the things which are
above.+--1. _Holiness._ 2. _Love._ 3. _Peace._
4. _Truth.--A. W. Hare._

_The New Life._

+I. There is a great difference between the new life and the old.+--1. _In our feelings._ 2. _Principles._ 3. _Aims._ 4. _Methods._ 5. _Conduct._ 6. _Thoughts._ 7. _Company._ 8. _Influence._

+II. This difference should lead us to think much of heaven and to seek after heavenly things.+--1. _To know all we can about heaven._ 2. _To prepare all we can for heaven._ 3. _To take all we can with us to heaven.--Preacher's Magazine._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3, 4.

_The Present Condition and Future Glory of Life in Christ._

The Christian life has a twofold aspect. Outwardly it is shorn of all splendours, and to the eye of the world appears a life of weakness, ignominy, and suffering; but inwardly it is radiant with Divine light and pervaded with a heavenly peace. The believer is often as a monarch in the disguise of a beggar. The world knows nothing of the new life of which he has become possessed, and the new life must know nothing of the world. Its aspirations are directed towards higher things. The relish for earthly things is gone.

+I. That the present condition of the believer's life in Christ involves a new relation to outward things.+--"For ye are dead" (ver. 3). There was a time when he not only lived in the world, but _to_ the world and _for_ the world. He was wholly captivated and absorbed in the pursuits and enjoyments of the carnal mind. But now, while still in the world, he is dead to its charms and to its ordinances. All the mainsprings of activity are changed. He is risen with Christ and shares the power of His resurrection life. Man lives where He loves, and, having experienced so complete a change, his affections are now fixed on things above, and his life is bound up in the love and service of Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of God. He is dead because he is crucified with Christ, and hath put off the old man--the old fleshly nature--with his deeds. This death involves a renunciation of all the ceremonial observances against which the apostle so faithfully warned in the preceding chapter--the Mosaic ritual, the vain philosophy, the angelolatry, the pride of the fleshly mind, the traditions and commandments of men, and all the pernicious doctrines of the false teachers. He is dead to the past and realising the beating of a new life within him, he enters upon a brighter and loftier career.

+II. That the present condition of the believer's life in Christ is one of concealment from the outward world.+--1. _It is hid._ "Your life is hid" (ver. 3). All life is hid. Its origin is a profound mystery. The botanist fails to discover it as he picks his plant into microscopic atoms. The scalpel of the anatomist has not pierced its dark domain and laid bare its hiding-place. Its presence is known only by its effects. So is it with the new life of the soul. It is hid from the world. It has a glory and a power of its own; but the world is incapable of appreciating either. It is not a life of vulgar display and noisy demonstration. It is gentle, quiet, and retiring, sometimes obscured by a tempest of persecution and suffering. It is sometimes partially hidden to the believer himself when assailed by temptations and oppressed by the weight of heavy chastisements. Yet that hidden life is the power that shall shake and transform the world.

2. _It is hid with Christ._--"Your life is hid with Christ" (ver. 3). Christ Himself was hidden when on earth. To the undiscerning, He was a root out of a dry ground, possessing neither form nor comeliness. Even now Christ is hidden to the worldly mind; and the believer's life is hidden with Him, as a river, concealed for a time in a hidden channel, flows on beneath and out of sight. This hiding of the believer's life with Christ indicates (1) _Dependence._ It is not hid with the believer himself. He derives it from Christ, as the great fontal source of all life; and on Him he depends for its constant supply and nourishment. The springs of this life abide when every other channel of supply is dry and its fount exhausted. We must wait on Christ for daily supplies of living water. It indicates (2) _Security._ Our life is safer in Christ's keeping than it could be in our own. Man was once entrusted with the gift of a glorious life, and he lost it. But in the hands of Christ our life is out of all danger. It is secure amid the conflicts of time, the subtle temptations of the world, and the wild rage of demons.

3. _It is hid in the depths of the Godhead._--"Your life is hid with Christ in God" (ver. 3). A grand but unfathomable truth! It is not _lost_ in the abyss of Deity, as the mystic or pantheist would teach; but it is so hid as to retain its own conscious individuality, while sharing in the boundless life of God. It is a gift from God, bestowed through Christ the great Mediator, created by the power and energy of the Holy Ghost; so that the nature, manner, and destiny of the gift are hidden in God through the mediation of His Son. "God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." The exercise of faith brings the soul into living union with the glorious Trinity.

+III. That the believer's life in Christ will, in the future, be manifested in ineffable glory.+--1. _There will be a signal manifestation of Christ in the future._ "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear" (ver. 4). Christ is now invisible to His people and to the world. He withdrew from the scene of His suffering ministry, entered the serene heights of heaven, and there, all-potent, is carrying on His high purposes of grace and salvation. But by-and-by--not at the bidding of the impatient prophets, who dare to fix the Lord a time, and, in their too realistic interpretation of His Word, consider His second coming as the grand and only specific for the world's evils--in His own good time, to the joy of His people and the dismay of His foes, He will come in overwhelming glory.

2. _The believer will share in the ineffable glory of that manifestation._--"Then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (ver. 4). (1) This implies _public recognition._ The believer, obscure and despised on earth, is acknowledged before the universe as related to Christ by the dearest ties and as deriving his life from Him. All the ends of secrecy are answered. The hidden is revealed. The baffled, persecuted, unappreciated, afflicted people of God are for ever vindicated. (2) This also implies a _personal participation_ in the splendour of Christ's triumph and in the bliss of His character. "With Him in glory." Glory is a comprehensive term, and not easily defined. But whether we regard it as expressive of external and visible splendour, or as describing a condition of unutterable and endless felicity, in either sense, or both, the believer shares it with his exultant Lord. Rapture of raptures! to see Jesus, to be with Him, and to live in the sunshine of His smile for ever!

+Lessons.+--1. _The believer's life in Christ is a hidden, but a real life._ 2. _Bear patiently the trials of the present life._ 3. _The glory of the believer's future life will more than recompense him for the troubles of the present._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 3. _Death and Life with Christ._

+I. Ye are dead.+--1. _In your original state of unconcern and unbelief ye are dead._ 2. _By the Holy Ghost you are made to recognise this death as real and to acquiesce in it as just._ 3. _You continue to be thus dead with Christ._

+II. Your life is hid with Christ.+--1. _As partakers of His right to live._ 2. _In respect of the new spirit of your life._ 3. _Your life being with Christ must be where He is._ In God as its source, its centre, its pattern. 4. _This life with Christ is hid._ For security; in its intimacy; as separated from the world; is not to be always hidden (ver. 4).--_R. S. Candlish._

Ver. 4. _Christ our Life._

+I. The vital principle recognised.+--"Christ who is our life." 1. _The life is spiritual in its nature._ 2. _Eternal in its duration._

+II. The splendid spectacle predicted.+--"Christ shall appear."

1. _The manner._--In the glory of His Father, with His angels.

2. _The purpose._--To judge the quick and the dead.

+III. The glorious hope awakened.+--"Then shall ye appear with Him in glory." 1. _The great hope of the Christian life is that one day we shall be with Christ._ 2. _That we shall participate in Christ's glory._ 3. _These words are full of comfort to those drawing near to death.--J. T. Woodhouse._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5-9.

_Mortification of the Sinful Principle in Man._

Practice follows doctrine. The genuineness of a precept is tested by its adaptability to the practical working out of life's problem. The apostle has laid down his doctrine clearly and emphatically, and now he proceeds to enforce the use of the best methods for securing the highest degree of personal holiness. These methods are in perfect harmony with the exalted experience into which the believer is introduced when he is risen with Christ and participates in that glorious life which is hid with Christ in God.

+I. That the sinful principle in man has an active outward development.+--1. _It is mundane in its tendencies._ "Your members which are upon the earth" (ver. 5). It is earthly, sensual, depraved. It teaches the soul to grovel when it ought to soar. It is in sympathy with the whole mass of earthly things--riches, honour, pleasure, fame--which stand opposed to the higher aspirations of the soul, whose affection is fixed on things above.

2. _It is manifested in acts of gross sensuality._--"Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence" (ver. 5). A revolting catalogue, a loathsome index to the festering mass of corruption within! A rake's progress has been portrayed by the genius of a Hogarth; but where is the pencil that can delineate the dark progress of evil? For there is an order observed in its abhorrent development. The mischief begins in evil concupiscence; yielding to the first unholy impulse, it goes on to lustful and inordinate affection; proceeds to uncleanness--pollutions which follow on the two preceding vices; and ends in fornication, both in its ordinary meaning and in that of adultery. Possibly the apostle had reference to the rites of Bacchus and Cybele, which were wont to be celebrated with many peculiar impurities in Phrygia, of which Colossæ, Laodicea, and Hierapolis were cities, and which so deeply depraved the morals of the people. The outgoings of evil are not less rampant and shocking in modern times. Evil is the same in principle everywhere.

3. _It is recognised by a debasing idolatry._--"And covetousness, which is idolatry" (ver. 5). Covetousness is a sin that comes the earliest into the human heart and is the last and most difficult to be driven out. It is an insatiable lust after material possessions--the greed of getting more for the sake of more, till often the brain is turned and the heart withered. The apostle brands it with the significant term "idolatry." With the covetous man his idol is his gold, which, in his eyes, answereth all things; his soul is the shrine where the idol is set up; and the worship which he owes to God is transferred to mammon. Avarice is the seed of the most hateful and outrageous vices. The exhortation to mortify the flesh is pressed home by reminding them of the certainty of the Divine wrath which would overtake the contumacious and disobedient.

+II. That the active outgoings of the sinful principle in man call for the infliction of Divine vengeance.+--The wrath of God is not a malignant, unreasoning passion, like that with which we are familiar among men. Nor is it a strong figure of speech, into which the maudlin philosophers of the day would fain resolve it. It is an awful reality. It is not merely a thing of the past, to the terrible havoc of which history bears faithful and suggestive testimony. It is the wrath to come and will be "revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." It is not inconsistent with infinite love, but is an impressive form in which the Divine righteousness expresses itself against all disobedient and impenitent workers of iniquity.