Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (34)

+III. That the indulgence of the sinful principle in man is inconsistent with the new life he has in Christ.+--There was a time when the sins here enumerated formed the atmosphere in which the Colossians lived, moved, and breathed; they represented the condition of their life and the character of their practice; they lived and walked in sin. But that time was past. A great change had taken place. They were surrounded by a purer atmosphere; they lived in another world; they aspired to a nobler destiny. To return to the vices and idolatries of their former life was utterly inconsistent with their exalted character; it was unworthy of the high and holy vocation wherewith they were called. It is salutary to be reminded now and then of our former life of sin. It magnifies the grace of God in the great change He has wrought. It warns against the danger of being drawn into old habits and associations. It stimulates the heavenward tendencies of the new life.

+IV. That the sinful principle in man is the source of the most malignant passions.+--The former classification embraced sins which related more especially to self; this includes sins which have a bearing upon others.

1. _There are sins of the heart and temper._--"Anger, wrath, malice" (ver. 8). There is an anger which is a righteous indignation against wrong, and which is so far justifiable and sinless. It is the anger without cause or beyond cause, and which degenerates into a bitter feeling of revenge, that is here condemned. Wrath is the fierce ebullition of anger, expressed with ungovernable passion; and is at all times unseemly and unlawful. Malice is anger long cherished, until it becomes a settled habit of mind. It involves hatred, secret envy, desire of revenge and retaliation, and universal ill-will towards others. It is altogether a diabolical passion. If anger exceeds its bounds, it becomes wrath; if wrath lies brooding in the bosom, it degenerates into malice.

2. _There are sins of the tongue._--"Blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another" (vers. 8, 9). Blasphemy in a lower sense includes all calumny, evil-speaking, railing, slandering, scoffing, ridiculing--all vile insinuations, whether against God or man. Filthy communication refers to all foul-mouthed abuse, indelicate illusions, details of vicious scenes, and whatever hurts the feelings and shocks the sense of propriety rather than injures the character. Lying is also here condemned. Wherever this vice prevails society is rotten to the core. The almost total want of truthfulness is one of the saddest features of the moral condition of heathendom. Lying basely violates the gift of speech, saps the foundation of human intercourse, and overturns the first principles of morals. That which is spoken in ignorance, though untrue, is not a lie; but to equivocate, to speak so as to lead another to a false conclusion, is to lie as really as if the speaker deliberately stated what he knew was a falsehood. All these sins are directly opposed to that ingenuous sincerity which is the leading characteristic of the new life in Christ.

+V. That the sinful principle in man, and all its outgoings, must be wholly renounced and resolutely mortified.+--"But now ye also put off all these" (ver. 8). "Mortify, therefore, your members" (ver. 5). There is much force in the word "therefore." Since ye are dead with Christ and are risen with Him, since ye possess a glorious life hid with Christ in God, _therefore_ mortify--put to death the members of your earthly and corrupt nature, and encourage the expansion of that pure, beauteous, and exalted life which ye have received through the faith of the operation of God. Not that we are to kill or mutilate the members of the body that have been the instruments of sin, but to crucify the interior vices of the mind and will. It is wholly a moral process; the incipient inclination to sin must be restrained, deadened, crushed. In order to this there must be the total renunciation of all sin. "But now ye also put off all these." The verb is imperative and the exhortation emphatic. There must be not only an abstinence from open vice--heathen morality insists on as much as this--but there must be the putting away of every secret evil passion--removing it out of sight as we would remove a dead body to burial. As the prince casts off the coarse garment in which he has been disguised and stands forth in an apparel befitting his rank and dignity, so the believer is to divest himself of the unsightly and filthy garment of the old man and allow the new man to appear adorned with heavenly magnificence and bright with the inextinguishable lustre of a Divine spiritual life.

+Lessons.+--1. _The sinful principle in man is a great power._ 2. _The new spiritual life in the believer is in ceaseless antagonism with the old._ 3. _The constant duty of the believer is to subdue and destroy the sinful principle._ 4. _In fulfilling this duty all the powers of good are on his side._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 5. _Covetousness, which is Idolatry._

+I. In its essence.+--It is putting the creature in the place of the Creator, and giving it the worship due to God alone.

+II. In its practice.+--Body and soul are consecrated to the service of mammon.

+III. In its punishment.+--Idolatry is a sin peculiarly obnoxious to God--is not merely the breach of His law, but treason against His government. God deprives the covetous of his idol at last, and sends him treasureless into the unseen world, wrecked and ruined, to endure the wrath to come.--_Preacher's Magazine._

Ver. 6. _The Wrath of God._--

+I. A reality to be dreaded.+

+II. Is roused by the workings of iniquity.+

+III. Will overtake the disobedient.+

Vers. 7-9. _The New Life_--

+I. Must break thoroughly away from the old life of sin.+

+II. Is evident in temper and speech.+

+III. Is the interpretation of all that is pure and true.+

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.

_The New Spiritual Nature._

In the primitive Church it was customary for the new converts, after putting aside their heathenish vestments, to array themselves in white garments, that they might indicate, in the most public manner, the great change which had taken place. It was perhaps in allusion to this custom that the apostle bases his exhortation. A courtier would not dare to insult his sovereign by appearing before him in squalid and tattered garments but would be specially studious to attire himself in a dress every way suited to his rank and character. So, the believer would not dishonour God and disgrace the religion he has embraced by exhibiting the vices and passions that characterised his former unrenewed state but is the more solicitous to magnify the grace of God in a life of outward consistency and purity. In the former verses the writer has insisted on sanctification in its negative aspect--the mortification of sin, the putting off the old man. In these words, he deals with sanctification on its positive side, and shows that it is the putting on the new spiritual nature, in which the believer is ever advancing to a higher knowledge. Observe:--

+I. That the possession of the new spiritual nature implies a complete change of the whole man.+--"Seeing that ye have put off the old man, with his deeds, and have put on the new man" (vers. 9, 10). The believer has a twofold moral personality. There is in him the old man--the sinful principle; and there is in him also the new--the God-like, spiritual nature. Whatever we bring with us from the womb of our mother is the old man; whatever we receive by the grace of the Holy Spirit is the new. In the great spiritual transformation experienced by every believer there is a twofold and coincident operation--the putting off of the old and the putting on of the new; there is an act of renunciation and unclothing and an act of reception and investment. This change is complete; it pervades the whole man, ruling every power, fashioning the character, and inspiring the entire life. This change is Divine in its origin and outworking. Man has no power of himself to effect the renewal of his nature. It is "not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." It is the triumph of Divine grace, and to God only all praise is due.

+II. That the new spiritual nature is ever advancing to a higher knowledge.+--"Which is renewed in knowledge" (ver. 10), which is ever being renewed unto perfect knowledge (_Lightfoot_). The present tense is used, and it is indicated that the new spiritual nature does not reach perfection at once but is in a state of growth and development. The realisation of the new life in man is bounded by the amount and character of the knowledge he possesses, and by the clearness and tenacity with which that knowledge is apprehended and maintained. The experience may be below the actual knowledge possessed but cannot be beyond it. Whatever degree of holiness the soul attains, it is still susceptible of advancement. The process of renewal is continually going on, as the statue grows, under the chisel of the sculptor, into a more perfect form of beauty. The knowledge referred to is the true knowledge of Christ as opposed to the false knowledge of the heretical teachers. The process of renewal increases the capacity of the believing soul to appreciate the knowledge of Divine and heavenly realities, and the increase in the knowledge of the highest things reacts advantageously on the renewed nature. The higher we ascend in the knowledge of God, the more like Him do we become.

+III. That the new spiritual nature is refashioned after the most perfect model.+--"After the image of Him that created him" (ver. 10). Man was originally created in the image of God, that image consisting in a moral resemblance--"in righteousness and true holiness." Christ is Himself "the image of the invisible God," and conformity to Him is the pattern of our renewal, the all-perfect standard towards which we are continually to approximate. The moral image which we lost in the fall of the first Adam is more than regained in the second Adam. Redemption places man on a higher platform than he would have occupied if he had remained the moral condition in which he was originally created. It brings him nearer to God, gives him a broader and more sympathetic insight into the Divine character and purposes, and makes him more like God. In the spiritual region into which the believer in Christ is transferred all minor distinctions vanish. Not only do they not exist, they cannot exist. It is a region to which they are utterly unsuited and cannot therefore be recognised.

+IV. That the new spiritual nature is superior to all earthly distinctions.+--1. _It is superior to all national distinctions._ "Where there is neither Greek nor Jew" (ver. 11). To the Jew the whole world was divided into two classes: Jews and Gentiles--the privileged and unprivileged portions of mankind; religious prerogative being taken as the line of demarcation. But such a narrow distinction is antagonistic to the broad and generous spirit of the Gospel. Let a man be but renewed in Christ Jesus, and it inquires not as to what country he belongs.

2. _It is superior to all ritualistic distinctions._--"Circumcision nor uncircumcision" (ver. 11). It matters not whether a man is born in a Christian country and brought up in the midst of the greatest ecclesiastical privileges, or whether he is cradled in the darkest paganism; in either case a change of heart is absolutely necessary. No branch of the universal Church can claim the exclusive right of admitting souls into heaven; and it is intolerable impertinence to insist upon the necessity of ceremonial observances in order to salvation--as was the case with the false teachers of Colossæ, and as is the case with the pretentious ritualism of the day. "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature."

3. _It is superior to all political distinctions._--"Barbarian, Scythian" (ver. 11). Like the Jews, the Greeks divided mankind into two classes--Greeks and barbarians--civilisation and culture being now the criterion of distinction. The Scythian was the lowest type of barbarian. Christianity acknowledges no such distinction. Whether gathered from the most refined or most barbarous nation, all are one in Christ Jesus. The Gospel has broken down the narrow and arbitrary classification of the race, maintained the right of all nations of the world to be classed as one genus, and replaced the _barbarian_ by the more humane and unifying title of _brother._ Max Müller writes: "_Humanity_ is a word which you look for in vain in Plato or Aristotle; the idea of mankind as one family, as the children of one God, is an idea of Christian growth; and the science of mankind, and of the languages of mankind, is a science which, without Christianity, would never have sprung into life."

4. _It is superior to all social distinctions._--"Bond nor free" (ver. 11). The diversities of condition which divide men in the present world are unknown in the sphere of this spiritual renewal. The grace which changed the heart of Philemon the master also renewed the soul of Onesimus, his slave; and often the bondman is the first to enter into the liberty of the children of God. Here the rich and poor, the nobility and peasantry, meet together, and form one common brotherhood.

+V. That the new spiritual nature recognises Christ as everything.+--"But Christ is all, and in all" (ver. 11). All belongs to Him; He originated and sustains all, and He is in all. He is everything to the believer--the Source and Centre of his life, the Ideal after which he continually aspires, the Possession by which he will be enriched for ever. The believer is a living, speaking, active expression of the Christ within him. Christ, without the exclusion of any nation or sect, unites all; and so, through His indwelling in all, is Himself all.

+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is the Author, Pattern, and End of the new spiritual nature._ 2. _To put on the new spiritual nature it is essential to believe in Christ._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 9-11. _Religion a Change of Life._

+I. Evident by putting off the old nature and its sins+ (ver. 9).

+II. By putting on a new nature renewed after the Divine likeness+
(ver. 10).

+III. Superior to all conventional distinctions+ (ver. 11).

+IV. In which Christ is everything+ (ver. 11).

Ver. 11. _Christ All and in All._

+I. Christ is all and in all in the realm of creation.+--The vast fabric of created things sprang into being at His word. Out of nothing He created all that is. The distance between being and no-being is so great that nothing short of infinite power can cause that to be which never before existed. The heavens are "the firmament of His power." He made the stars, kindled their brilliant fires, fixed their rank, regulated their motions, and appointed their mission. He formed the earth, robed it in vestments of ever-changing beauty, and endowed it with unfailing productiveness. He fashioned man after the model of His own illustrious image, freighted him with faculties of wondrous compass, indicated the possibilities of his career, and the character of his destiny. Christ is the grand centre of the magnificent systems by which He is encircled, and which He has grouped around Himself by the exercise of His creative hand. On Him their continued existence every moment hangs.

+II. Christ is all and in all in the sphere of providence.+--He sustains and governs all. Close as population follows on the heels of production, food never fails for man and beast. Study the sublime epic on the Divine preservation furnished by Psalm civ. and consider how the history of human experience in all ages confirms the truth. Christ controls all the forces of nature. The sweep of the heavenly bodies, the surge and re-surge of the tide, the eccentric course and velocity of the wind, the departure and return of the light, the roll of the dreaded thunder, the recurrent phases of the seasons, all are obedient to His nod. He is predominant among the spiritual agencies of the universe. He restricts the power of the great enemy of man. He restrains the power of evil. He governs the complicated passions of human hearts and makes even the wrath of men to praise Him. He guards, guides, and delivers His Church. The greatness of His providential power is seen in His accomplishing the mightiest results by insignificant instrumentalities. He is conducting all things to a glorious consummation.

+III. Christ is all and in all in the work of redemption.+--He suffered to the death on behalf of the sinning race. He was a voluntary victim. He was unique in His person--comprising in Himself the Divine and human natures. As man, He met all the necessities of sinful and condemned humanity; as God, He answered all the requirements of the Divine righteousness. While the greatest modern philosophers are puzzling their minds with an endless variety of methods for recovering man from his lapsed condition, we behold the problem solved in the life, sufferings, and death of Christ. That was a method of redemption that would never have occurred to a finite mind; and it is now beyond the range of the greatest human intellect to fathom. Christ, and Christ alone, could redeem. In that sphere He is all in all, or He is nothing. His work of redemption is an entrancing expression of the tenderest, deepest, most mysterious love.

+IV. Christ is all and in all in the kingdom of glory.+--He is the Head of all principalities and powers in the heavenly places. They depend on Him for life and purity, they obey His slightest word, they adore His infinite majesty, they delight in His hallowed fellowship. Christ is also Head over all things to the Church, which is His body; the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. He is the central attraction and source of bliss in the realm of glory. The redeemed cast their crowns before Him and chant His praise in ceaseless anthems. If Christ were absent, heaven would lose its greatest charm.

"I love to think of heaven; its cloudless light,
Its tearless joys, its recognitions and its fellowships
Of love and joy unending; but when my mind anticipates
The sight of God incarnate, wearing on His hands,
And feet, and side, marks of the wounds
Which He, for me, on Calvary endured,
All heaven beside is swallowed up in this;
And He who was my hope of heaven below,
Becomes the glory of my heaven above."

+V. Christ is all and in all to the believing soul.+--He appears as the great Emancipator; He delivers from the power of darkness, and translates the benighted but groping soul into the kingdom of light. He gives rest to the weary and heavy laden. He comforts the mourner. He defends and succours the tempted. He is the refuge in every time of distress. All the wants of the soul are anticipated and abundantly supplied. He will conduct safely through all the changeful scenes of this life; and finally invest the soul with the imperishable splendours of an endless future. Christ is the great necessity and the all-satisfying portion of the soul.

+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is supreme in all spheres._ 2. _Christ is the great need of the human soul._ 3. _Faith in Christ brings the soul into a personal participation in the Divine fulness._

_Christ is All and in All._

+I. The essential glories of Christ.--He possesses all things.+

+II. Christ has purchased all blessings for us.+--All temporal and
all spiritual blessings.

+III. All blessings are treasured up in Christ for the eternal use of
His Church.+

+IV. He will keep His family in the possession of all good for
ever.+--_W. Howels._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12, 13.

_Essentials of the Christian Character._

In the cultivation of a rare and valuable plant care must be taken to rid it of everything that would retard its growth, and to supply it with whatever aids it in reaching the highest possibility of shapeliness and beauty. Not only must it be severely pruned and divested of every noxious weed and destructive parasite, but it must be diligently tended, and liberally provided with air, light, and moisture. So is it in the training of the Christian character. It is not enough that the old man--the sinful principle--is suppressed, mortified, deadened; all the graces of the new man--the new spiritual nature--must be assumed and sedulously cultivated. Religion is not a dry, sapless, dead negation, but a grand positive reality--an active, ever-growing life, pushing its way through every channel of man's nature, and fashioning his character after the loftiest pattern of moral loveliness and purity. The change the Colossians had experienced furnished the most forcible reason why they should advance in spiritual development. Having risen with Christ, and having put off the old man, with his deeds, there is an unmistakable emphasis in the exhortation--_Put on, therefore,_ the characteristics of the new man.

+I. That the Christian character is distinguished by a special designation.+--"The elect of God, holy and beloved" (ver. 12).

1. _Distinguished as the object of the Divine choice._--"The elect of God"--chosen by Him, as an act of undeserved, unmerited mercy, to the knowledge of Himself and His glorious salvation; called out of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. This election is a condition of exalted privilege to which all rise who accept the message of God's mercy through Jesus Christ.

2. _Distinguished by personal purity._--"Holy." Here is the evidence and practical result of the Divine election. "Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (Eph. i. 4). The people of God are called to be holy--consecrated to His service; set apart from a common and wholly devoted to a sacred purpose. Holiness is the habitual condition, aim, delight, and employment of the Christian's life.

3. _Distinguished by the Divine affection._--"Beloved." The believer is the object of God's special love, of the favour which He beareth unto His people. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God." The epithets here used have each the force of a motive. Since the believer is _elect, holy, beloved,_ let him act in harmony with his exalted character and calling. Lavater has said, "The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint."

+II. That the Christian character is distinguished by a heartfelt sympathy.+--1. _This sympathy arises from a spirit of tender mercy._ "Bowels of mercies" (ver. 12)--a phrase which expresses the effect on the body of strong emotions of pity. It was said of Joseph that "his bowels did yearn over his brethren, and he sought where to weep." The miseries of our fellow-creatures, especially of those who are in a worse condition than ourselves, call for our compassion and help; and a genuine pity is not only visible in the countenance and uttered by the lips, but felt in the inmost heart, and prompts to generous actions.

2. _This sympathy arises from a spirit of kindness._--"Kindness" refers to the temper we should show towards those we meet in the daily intercourse of life who are on an equality with ourselves. The Christian should be amiable, courteous, kind in speech and action, eager to relieve others according to his means--the farthest remove from a crabbed, sullen, churlish disposition. A hard, cold, selfish, unfeeling heart is a characteristic of fallen, unrenewed man; _bowels of mercies_ and _kindness_ of the renewed one.

+III. That the Christian character is distinguished by a genuine humility.+--"Humbleness of mind" (ver. 12). These words describe the estimate that is to be formed of self. The believer is taught not to overrate nor unduly to depreciate himself. He is governed by the apostolic rule, "Let each esteem other better than themselves." The more exalted his views of God, and the more he remembers his own unworthiness, weakness, ignorance, and sin, the more softly and lowly does he seek to walk. As in the garden that branch hangs down the lowest which is most heavily laden with fruit, so in the Church the ripest saints are those who walk humbly with God. The humble man is the most susceptible to compassion and genuine in its practical manifestation. The proud man is too full of himself to feel for others; he is always dissatisfied, always embroiling in quarrels the family, the Church, the social circle where he resides. The humblest man is the bravest man. He endures with composure the contempt and arrogance of others.

+IV. That the Christian character is distinguished by a gentle and patient spirit.+--"Meekness, longsuffering" (ver. 12).

1. _The Christian spirit is gentle._--"Meekness." This grace indicates what should be our conduct towards others in their treatment of us. Meekness is evidenced in modesty of countenance, gentleness of manner, softness of voice, and mildness of language; it is opposed to rudeness or harshness. We see it exemplified in the way in which Gideon pacified the irascible men of Ephraim (Judg. viii. 2). It is slow to take, and scorns to give, offence.

2. _The Christian spirit is patient._--"Longsuffering," which is meekness continued, though subjected to the fiercest provocations. It is opposed to resentment, revenge, wrath. Meekness exercises itself in matters of chagrin, impertinence, folly; longsuffering in those of violent outrage, affront, injury. Meekness may be required by the mere _manner_ of others towards us; longsuffering is often necessary by their _conduct._ There is a difference between enduring long and longsuffering. The genuine grace is accompanied, not only with patience, but with joyous activity and watchfulness. It is not like the senseless rock which endures the full force of the storm unmoved and unresponsive, but like the nimble vessel that, while it bends to the tempest, is at the same time diligently speeding on its mission.

+V. That the Christian character is distinguished by a practical manifestation of a spirit of mutual forbearance and forgiveness.+--1. _Mutual forbearance and forgiveness are to be exercised universally._ "Forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any" (ver. 13). The word "quarrel" is better rendered _complaint._ It takes two to make a quarrel, and of these the Christian should never be one. Whatever occasion of offence may arise, whatever cause of complaint, in any man, under any circumstances, and however just the complaint may appear, forbearance is to be exercised; and even if the forbearance is abused and injury be added, we must forgive. It is never on one side only that the fault exists. It is one another, each in his turn, that gives and receives forbearance. If this were more frequently observed, how many unseemly discords and mischievous separations would be prevented!

2. _The exercise of forgiveness is enforced by the highest example._--"Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye" (ver. 13). These words come as an impressive climax, enforcing the duty of forgiveness by the strongest motive. The more difficult the duty, the more powerful should be the arguments urging its performance. The example of Christ is supreme in its authority. What are the injuries committed by others against us compared with the number and enormity of our sins against God? Yet Christ forgave us all, freely, fully, unreservedly, and for ever. The heart that is not moved to forgiveness by such an example is hopelessly incorrigible.

+Lessons.+--1. _The unity of Christian character is made up of many separate essential graces._ 2. _The condition of things in this world affords ample scope for the exercise of every Christian grace._ 3. _To forgive is at once the most difficult and most Christ-like._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 12. _Christian Humility._

+I. The nature of this holy temper.+--1. _A humble apprehension of our own knowledge._ The imperfection of our faculties, our fallibility of judgment, when we compare our knowledge with the attainments of others, and a persuasion of the small value of the most exalted knowledge without practical influence. 2. _Of our own goodness._ 3. _Of our independence and wants._ 4. _Of our own rank and station._

+II. The obligations to cultivate a humble temper.+--1. _It is mentioned in Scripture with peculiar marks of distinction and honour._ The most distinguished promises are made to it. It is a necessary introduction to other graces and duties. 2. _It is a grace which adorns every other virtue and recommends religion to every beholder._ 3. _Is recommended to us by the example of the Author and Finisher of our faith._ 4. _Is a grace that will go with us to heaven._

+Lessons.+--1. _Those destitute of this grace have the rudiments of Christianity to learn._ 2. _We should look principally to the temper of our spirits to judge of our humility._ 3. _By it we judge of the improving or declining state of our souls.--J. Evans, D.D._

Ver. 13. _Christian Forgiveness_--

+I. Is exercised where there is mutual forbearance.+

+II. Is the noblest method of ending quarrels.+

+III. Is a Christ-like disposition.+

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 14.

_Love the Perfection of the Christian Character._

Love is the commonest and most potent affection of the human heart. It has been the inexhaustible theme of writers in all ages, in poetry and prose. It has been invested with the bewitching drapery of romance and exhibited as the instrumental cause of the darkest crimes and of the brightest virtues. The world never tires of learning of its adventures, trials, and victories. While it is ever commonplace, it is ever fresh. It is the perennial force in human life--the first to inspire, the longest to endure, the last to perish. But Christian love--love to Jesus Christ, and to all others for His sake--is not a native-born affection. It does not spring spontaneously from the human heart. It is a gift from God. It is the richest fruit of the new spiritual nature implanted in the believer. It is first to be acquired and then diligently cultivated. The apostle has just described the distinctive garments with which the believer is to be adorned--with a heart of tender compassion, with humility, with a gentle, patient, and forgiving spirit. But in addition to all this, and in order to complete the Christian character, he is to be clothed in a robe which is to cover every other garment and bind it to its place--a robe whose purity and brightness shall shed a lustre over all the rest.

+I. That love is the prime element in every other grace of the Christian character.+--It is the soul of every virtue and the guarantee of a genuine sincerity. Without love all other graces, according to an old writer, are but _glittering sins._ There is a great power of affectionateness in the human heart, but no man possesses naturally the spiritual love of God and love of the race. It is a fruit of the Holy Ghost and comes though that faith which works by love. It is possible to assume all the essentials of the Christian character, enumerated in ver. 12, and previously commented on; but without love they would be meaningless, cold, and dead. Mercy would degenerate into weak sentimentality; kindness into foolish extravagance; humility into a mock self-depreciation--which is but another form of the proudest egotism; and longsuffering into a dull, dogged stupidity. Love is the grand element in which all other graces move and from which they derive their vitality and value. It is the grace which alone redeems all other from the curse of selfishness, and is, itself, the most unselfish.

+II. That love occupies the most exalted place in the Christian character.+--"Above all these things." Not simply in addition to, but _over and above_ all these, put on charity, as the outer garment that covers and binds together all the rest. Other graces are local and limited in their use; love is all-expansive and universal. A philosopher, in a vein of pungent satire, has dilated on the philosophy of clothes; and experience testifies how mightily the world is influenced and instructed by outward appearances. As the dress frequently indicates the rank and importance of the wearer, so the garment of love, worn without ostentation or pride, is the badge by which the Christian is known in the world (John xiii. 35). Love is the presiding queen over all Christian graces, inspiring and harmonising their exercises, and developing them into a living and beauteous unity of character. The apostle fixes the exalted rank of love in 1 Cor. xiii. 13.

+III. That love is the pledge of permanency in the Christian character.+--"Which is the bond of perfectness." As a girdle, or cincture, bound together with firmness and symmetry the loose flowing robes generally worn by the ancients, so love is the power that unites and holds together all those graces and virtues which together make up perfection. Love is the preservative force in the Christian character. Without it knowledge would lose its enterprise, mercy and kindness become languid, humility faint, and longsuffering indifferent. Love binds all excellencies together in a bond which time cannot injure, the enemy unloose, or death destroy. No church, or community of individuals, can exist long without the sustaining power of love. It is not a similarity in taste, intellectual pursuits, in knowledge, or in creed, that can permanently unite human hearts, but the all-potent sympathy of Christian love. Charity never faileth.

+IV. That the perfection of the Christian character is seen in the practical manifestation of love.+--"Put on charity."

1. _Love is indispensable._--It is possible to possess many beautiful traits of character--much that is humane and amiable--without being a complete Christian: to be very near perfection, and yet lack one thing. Without love all other graces are inconsistent, heartless, wayward, selfish. They are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Charity is indispensable to give life, force, meaning, truth, permanence to the whole. It supplies the imperfections and defects of other graces and virtues.

2. _Love is susceptible of individual cultivation._--It may be "put on." We may have more if we strive after it and faithfully use what is already possessed. It is a pressing, practical duty which all Christians are bound to attend to. And yet there is no grace which is more constantly suppressed. What a power the Church would become, and how marvellously would the character of the world be changed if love had a freer scope and was universally exercised. The pretentious coverings of sectarianism and bigotry would vanish, and the whole Church of the redeemed be girt with the ample robe of a seamless unity. To win the love of others we must put it on ourselves.

+Lessons.+--1. _The mere profession of Christianity is empty and valueless._ 2. _Every grace of the Christian character must be diligently exercised._ 3. _Above and through all other graces love must operate._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 15.

_The Rule of Divine Peace._

War in any form is unfriendly to the growth of piety. The soul is tossed on the waves of disquietude, and courage--the principal virtue called into exercise--is apt to acquire an unnatural and unhealthy development at the expense of all other graces. The whole structure of the Christian character is dislocated and thrown off its balance. Peace restores the soul to its true equipoise, fixes every power in its just relation to each other and to the whole, and encourages the harmonious cultivation of that love which is the bond of perfectness. Lord Bacon has said: "It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth." In this verse we are taught that _the one supreme umpire in the heart, by which all differences are to be settled, is the peace of God--the destined end of the Christian calling, in which is realised the unity belonging to members of one body; and that this blessing is to be sought in a spirit of thankfulness._ Observe:--

+I. That peace is a Divine blessing.+--"The peace of God." Some of the oldest manuscripts have read, "The peace of _Christ_"--a reading adopted by the ablest biblical critics. The verbal difference, however, is of no moment. The truth is the same: it is equally the peace of God and the peace of Christ--a Divine tranquillity filling the soul with a calm that no mere worldly power can give or take away, and that the ocean-surges of trouble can never diminish or disturb. Christ hath made peace through the blood of His cross and left it as a sacred legacy to all His disciples through all time. In its essence it is the peace that Christ Himself enjoys--a sublime calmness similar to that which pervades the Divine bosom. It is not like the long, painful, oppressive stillness that is the precursor of a storm, but a profound, pervasive, heavenly quiet that soothes while it invigorates the soul. It proceeds from God through Christ and is maintained and nourished in the heart as a positive, gracious reality and priceless blessing.

+II. That peace is a ruling power.+--"Let the peace of God rule." The word "rule" is borrowed from the practice of the Greeks at their great national games and described the duty of the arbiter or umpire presiding, who held the prize in his hand while the contest proceeded in the stadium and conferred it on the victor at the close. Thereby he exercised over the athletes a peculiar kind of rule. Impelled by a sight of the prize, they gave their whole being to the contest. So, in contending in the race of life, the peace of God, as containing all desirable blessings, is to exercise supreme authority and regulate all the concerns of the soul.

1. _As a ruling power peace pervades and stimulates every other grace._--It lifts the soul to God, and enables it to take hold of His strength. It prepares for every holy duty and stimulates to every spiritual enterprise. The more the soul is permeated with Divine peace, the more desire and aptitude will there be for higher attainments in piety.

2. _As a ruling power peace is a powerful defence._--It resists successfully the attacks of evil from whatever source they come. The shafts of infidelity cannot pierce the invulnerable defence of a conscious peace with God; right feeling is superior to the subtlest logic. Peace erects a formidable bulwark against temptation and is the surest safeguard against every form of sin.

3. _As a ruling power it concentrates and controls all the energies of the soul._--It calms the intellect, soothes the heart, tranquillises the conscience, and centralises all the powers of manhood, that they may go forth and do valiant battle for the truth. As by an unerring instinct it decides upon what is right and shuns the wrong. The questions as to whether it is right to engage in certain amusements, to visit certain places, or to join this or that company, will soon be settled when the peace of God rules in the heart. It is a regulating power in moral difficulties, and a potent help in all moral enterprises. The peace of God keeps the heart and mind through Jesus Christ (Phil. iv. 7).

+III. That peace is a ruling power in man.+--"In your hearts." The heart is the region where the ruling power is exercised and takes effect. It embraces the will and affections as distinguished from the intellect. It is the choosing faculty as distinguished from the knowing faculty. When the heart is drawn in one direction the whole man follows. There the moral disease begins, and there the remedy must be applied. By sin the heart has become deceitful above all things; in the regeneration the heart is made new. The rush of an evil heart's affections will not always yield to reason. When God, by His Word and Spirit, comes to save, He saves by arresting and renewing the heart. The psalmist recognised this when he cried, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. li. 10). No man is conquered until his heart is conquered. It is in this region the peace of God has powerful sway, and where it aids in achieving the most brilliant moral conquests.

+IV. That peace is essential to the unity of the Church.+--1. _The Church is called to the enjoyment of peace._ "To the which also ye are called." The burden of the Gospel message is _peace._ Its mission is to extinguish wars and enmities, and to pacify heaven and earth. The Church is called to peace by the commands of Christ, by the teachings of His example when on earth, by the reiterated precepts of God's Word, and by the necessities of the grand enterprise in which she is engaged.

2. _The enjoyment of peace is essential in preserving and promoting the unity of the Church._--"In one body." As ye were called as members of one body so let there be one Spirit animating that body. Among the stellar systems, in social communities and states, as well as in the Christian Church, a common agreement is essential to unity. Divine peace preserves harmony, nourishes spiritual strength, and promotes union by drawing the souls, in which it is the ruling power, more closely to God and to each other. There is to be the constant endeavour "to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. iv. 3).

+V. That peace is to be cultivated in the spirit of thankfulness.+--"And be ye thankful." These words are not to be restricted in their application. Not only do they imply that the Colossians were to act towards each other in a thankful and amiable temper, but they teach in what spirit the peace of God should be universally sought and exercised. The duty of thankfulness was the constant theme of the apostle: there are upwards of thirty references to it in his epistles. Here we are exhorted to consider it in special connection with the enjoyment of peace. Only he who has been swung in the dark whirl of unrest and doubt, who has witnessed the horrible riot of disunion and discord, can appreciate the blessing of peace and the gratitude it inspires. Cicero declared that gratitude was the mother of all other virtues. Certain it is that no man sins without ingratitude. Thanksgiving has always been the principal element in all religion, whether instituted by Divine command, prompted by natural reason, or propagated by general tradition. The pagan religion consists in the praise of their gods and acknowledgments of their benefits; the Jewish, to a great extent, in eucharistic oblations and solemn commemorations of providential favours; and the ancient Christians were distinguished by singing hymns to Christ, and by mutual sacraments obliging themselves to abstain from all villainy. Thanksgiving is a joyous exercise--the pleasantest of duties. Prayer reminds us of our wants and imperfections; confession enforces a painful remembrance of our sins; but gratitude includes nothing but the memory of exceeding goodness. It is a duty most acceptable to God and most profitable to man.

+Lessons.+--1. _True peace is found only in Christ._ 2. _Peace is a mighty engine of spiritual power._ 3. _Gratitude should combine with every blessing._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._

_Unity and Peace._

+I. The unity of the Church of Christ.+--1. _Distinguish the unity of comprehensiveness from the unity of mere singularity._ 2. _It subsists between things not similar or alike, but dissimilar or unlike._ 3. _It is made up of dissimilar members, without which dissimilarity there could be no unity._ 4. _It consists in submission to one single influence or spirit._ The Spirit of its God.

+II. The individual peace resulting from this unity.+--1. _It is God's peace._ 2. _A living peace._ 3. _The peace which comes from an inward power._ 4. _The peace of reception.--Robertson._

_The Peace of God ruling in the Heart._

+I. The region.+--"In your hearts." When the heart is drawn in one direction, the whole man follows. When God by His Word and Spirit comes to save, He saves by arresting the heart and making it new.

+II. The reign.+--"Rule." Freedom from rule is not competent to man; the only choice he has is a choice of masters.

+III. The Ruler.+--"The peace of God." 1. _It is God and no idol that should rule in a human heart._ 2. _It is not the wrath but the peace of God that rules in a human heart._ It is the act of letting me go free that binds my whole soul for ever.--_W. Arnot._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 16.

_The Poetry of the Christian Life._

In the life of the individual and of nations the era of poetry comes first and is followed by the era of criticism. The impulse of a youthful and enthusiastic passion and the boundless play of a prolific imagination produce certain artistic results; and then comes the cool, reflective critic, with microscopic eye and mathematical rules, to measure and appraise the loved production. How soon the glowing efflorescence withers, and the expanding magnitude dwindles to the smallest practical limits. Genuine poetry is superior to all criticism, outlives the most violent opposition, and is imperishable as humanity. Poetry is the language of the soul in its highest and holiest mood, when it is fired with a Divinely kindled rapture, when it strives to grasp the invisible and pants to express the grandest truths of the universe. The Christian life has its poetry. It is of the loftiest order, its theme the noblest, and its melody haunts the soul for ever with strains of ravishing harmony. In this verse we learn that _the poetry of the Christian life draws its inspiration from the Divine Word and ministers to the culture and enjoyment of the Church._ Observe:--

+I. That the poetry of the Christian life draws its deepest inspiration from the Divine Word.+--"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly."

1. _That the Divine Word is fitly called the Word of Christ._--It contains the record of His personal teaching--the revelation of new and startling truths, and the resetting of old truths in such a light as to connect the old and new dispensations, and blend them in an unbroken homogeneousness. It unfolds the mystery of that redemption He died to accomplish, and which forms so prominent a part of the teaching of this epistle. It is inspired by the Spirit of Christ, and gleams in every part with brilliant manifestations of His supernal glory. Christ is the all-pervading theme of the Scriptures--the key of the arch--the cornerstone of the foundation--the sun, illuminating with light and salvation the whole Gospel system to its remotest circumference.

2. _The Divine Word to create a true poetic fervour must wholly occupy the soul._--"Dwell in you richly." The Word of Christ is to be embraced as a whole, and due prominence given to every part of His character and work. Not to exalt His humanity to the denial of His Divinity; not to be so enamoured with the moral beauty of His life as to overlook the significance and power of His death. The Word is to dwell in us so completely as to possess and enrich every faculty and power of our nature. Not simply to give it a place in the region of intellectual opinion or in judging of moral questions, but to let it have a mighty sway over the affections of the heart--let it enter, saturate, purify, and govern the whole mental, moral, and spiritual being. It is to occupy the soul as a constant and permanent inspiration; to _dwell_--not as a stranger to stand without, or to be saluted at a distance, but to enter, to abide, and be treated as a loved and intimate guest. Let the Word of Christ be clearly apprehended, diligently pondered, and firmly grasped, and it will fill the soul with heavenly visions and inflame it with the holiest poetic ardour.

+II. That the poetry of the Christian life has made valuable literary contributions to the psalmody of the Church.+--"In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." It is not easy to make arbitrary distinctions between these poetic effusions. The _psalm_ was a sacred poem on whatever subject, and similar to the productions in the book of Psalms in the Old Testament; the _hymn_ specially celebrated the praises of the Almighty; and the _spiritual song,_ or ode, was more mixed in its matter and more artificial in its arrangement and referred to personal effusions of a more general character. The gift of poesy was among the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early Church (1 Cor. xiv. 26). The first form of literature in all countries is for the most part in song. A certain writer has said, that if he were allowed to make the songs of a nation, he cared not who made the laws. And in the Christian Church, from the earliest period, sacred psalmody has been a mighty power for edification and comfort. The hymnology of the church is becoming increasingly rich in its poetic treasures.

+III. That the poetry of the Christian life ministers to the mutual culture and happiness of the Church.+--1. _It is intellectual in its character._ "In all wisdom teaching one another." A more correct punctuation connects the clause "in all wisdom" with the words that follow, not, as in our version, with the words that precede. To teach in all wisdom demands the highest intellectual exercise, especially when poetry is the medium of instruction and the Word of Christ the theme. Without wisdom, poetry would sink into a maudlin sensuousness, a mere verbal jingling, and intolerable monotony. Wisdom is necessary to compare and balance the different parts of Scripture truth, to apply the Word on proper occasions to its proper ends and in harmony with its spirit, and to adopt the best means for attaining the highest results in mutual instruction. The profoundest feelings of our nature can only be expressed in poetry. The orator, as he reaches the loftiest strains of eloquence, becomes poetical.

2. _It is moral in its tendency._--"And admonishing one another." There is implied a deep concern for each other's moral condition and safety. The poetry of the early Christians was moral in its exercise and tendency. No one can feel an interest in another's morality who is himself immoral. An eminent critic has said: "The element in which poetry dwells is truth, and when imagination divorces itself from that relation, it declines into the neighbourhood of empty fiction or the dreams of lunacy." The poetry of the Christian life is based on eternal truth, and it is to be judiciously used as an instrument of admonition as well as of instruction. There is need for warning and brotherly counsel to restore the wanderer, to raise him if he has fallen, to reprove him if he is wrong, to protect and admonish him if he is in danger (Ps. cxli. 5).

3. _It is joyous in its effects._--"Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Music and poetry are sometimes prostituted to the basest purposes, ministering to the lowest passions, and inciting to the vilest actions. But the poetry of the Christian life refines the soul, raises it towards God, and fills it with the music of unspeakable delight. The proper sphere of music is the heavenly and the spiritual.

"Beyond the visible world she soars to seek,
For what delights the sense is false and weak;
Ideal form, the universal mould."

As the sea-shell conveys to the ear the faint music of the distant waves, so the poetry of the Christian life indicates in some degree the rapturous music that awaits on the heavenly shore. Coleridge said: "Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward. It has soothed my affliction, it has endeared solitude, and it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that surrounds me." And Keats said: "Let me have music dying and I seek no more delight."

+Lessons.+--1. _The highest poetry is found in the Divine Word._ 2. _To administer instruction and admonition through the medium of song is at once modest and significant._ 3. _The Christian life should be one sweet harmonious poem._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._

_The Word of Christ: its Characteristics as the Saviour's Book and the Sinner's Book._

+I. It is simple.+

+II. Significant.+

+III. Saving.+

+IV. Sanctifying.+

+V. Supporting.+

+VI. Suited to all.+

+Lessons.+--1. _Let its truths and realities inhabit your convictions._ 2. _Let its tone be infused into your temper._ 3. _Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.--James Hamilton, D.D._

_The Indwelling Word of Christ._

+I. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you.+--1. _Implies a sense of the preciousness of Christ Himself._ 2. _The preciousness of Christ's words, as well as of Christ Himself, is essential to its dwelling in you._ 3. _The felt preciousness of real present and living intercourse between Christ and you will cause the Word, as His Word, to abide in you._

+II. Dwell in you richly.+--1. _It may refer to quantity._ 2. _It may have respect to quality._ 3. _The rich indwelling of the Word of Christ in you may be held to correspond to the riches of Him whose Word it is._ 4. _It is to dwell in you not only as rich receivers but as rich dispensers also._