23 If you keep yourselves safely based in the faith, not moved from the hope of the good news which came to you, and which was given to every living being under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
For if we keep the substance of the faith which we had at the start, even till the end, we have a part with Christ;
Through the hope which is in store for you in heaven; knowledge of which was given to you before in the true word of the good news, Which has come to you; and which in all the world is giving fruit and increase, as it has done in you from the day when it came to your ears and you had true knowledge of the grace of God;
But the upright man will be living by his faith; and if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him.
But Christ as a son, over his house; whose house are we, if we keep our hearts fixed in the glad and certain hope till the end.
Now there were living at Jerusalem, Jews, God-fearing men, from every nation under heaven.
So that Christ may have his place in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and based in love,
Making strong the souls of the disciples, saying to them that they were to keep the faith, and that we have to go through troubles of all sorts to come into the kingdom of God.
And let us not get tired of well-doing; for at the right time we will get in the grain, if we do not give way to weariness.
Have no fear of the things which you will have to undergo: see, the Evil One will send some of you into prison, so that you may be put to the test; and you will have great trouble for ten days. Be true till death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Of which I became a servant by the purpose of God which was given to me for you, to give effect to the word of God,
When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him; in the evil which he has done death will overtake him.
And those on the rock are those who with joy give hearing to the word; but having no root, they have faith for a time, and when the test comes they give up. And those which went among thorns are those who have given hearing, and go on their way, but they are overcome by cares and wealth and the pleasures of life, and they give no fruit. And those in the good earth are those who, having given ear to the word, keep it with a good and true heart, and in quiet strength give fruit.
When he said this a number came to have faith in him. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had faith in him, If you keep my word, then you are truly my disciples; And you will have knowledge of what is true, and that will make you free.
If a man does not keep himself in me, he becomes dead and is cut off like a dry branch; such branches are taken up and put in the fire and burned.
Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life.
Rooted and based together in him, strong in the faith which the teaching gave you, giving praise to God at all times.
See what great love the Father has given us in naming us the children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not see who we are, because it did not see who he was. My loved ones, now we are children of God, and at present it is not clear what we are to be. We are certain that at his revelation we will be like him; for we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him makes himself holy, even as he is holy.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who had love for us and has given us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
For with high-sounding false words, making use of the attraction of unclean desires of the flesh, they get into their power those newly made free from those who are living in error; Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him. For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first. For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it. They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his great mercy has given us a new birth and a living hope by the coming again of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Having then a great high priest, who has made his way through the heavens, even Jesus the Son of God, let us be strong in our faith.
So that, having been given righteousness through grace, we might have a part in the heritage, the hope of eternal life.
And of this I became a preacher and an Apostle (what I say is true, not false,) and a teacher of the Gentiles in the true faith.
I give praise to him who gave me power, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he took me to be true, making me his servant,
And hope does not put to shame; because our hearts are full of the love of God through the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
To those who go on with good works in the hope of glory and honour and salvation from death, he will give eternal life:
But I put no value on my life, if only at the end of it I may see the work complete which was given to me by the Lord Jesus, to be a witness of the good news of the grace of God.
Who, when he came and saw the grace of God, was glad; and he made clear to them the need of keeping near the Lord with all the strength of their hearts:
To take that position as a servant and Apostle, from which Judas by his sin was shut out, so that he might go to his place.
For he was numbered among us, and had his part in our work.
Everyone, then, to whom my words come and who does them, will be like a wise man who made his house on a rock; And the rain came down and there was a rush of waters and the winds were driving against that house, but it was not moved; because it was based on the rock.
And those who are turned back from going after the Lord, and those who have not made prayer to the Lord or got directions from him.
And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes early away.
You will go after them in wrath, and put an end to them from under the heavens of the Lord.
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will come up tall and strong in his gardens. They will give fruit even when they are old; they will be fertile and full of growth;
And when your eyes are lifted up to heaven, and you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of heaven, do not let yourselves be moved to give them worship, or become the servants of what the Lord has given equally to all peoples under heaven.
From now on I will put the fear of you in all peoples under heaven, who, hearing of you, will be shaking with fear and grief of heart because of you.
I am in fear of you, that I may have been working for you to no purpose.
So that no man might be moved by these troubles; because you see that these things are part of God's purpose for us.
Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love.
Of which I was made a preacher, through that grace of God which was given to me in the measure of the working of his power. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, was this grace given, so that I might make clear to the Gentiles the good news of the unending wealth of Christ:
In whom all the building, rightly joined together, comes to be a holy house of God in the Lord;
And that having the eyes of your heart full of light, you may have knowledge of what is the hope of his purpose, what is the wealth of the glory of his heritage in the saints,
For we through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness.
Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking foolishly) I am more so; I have had more experience of hard work, of prisons, of blows more than measure, of death.
But all things are of God, who has made us at peace with himself through Christ, and has given to us the work of making peace; That is, that God was in Christ making peace between the world and himself, not putting their sins to their account, and having given to us the preaching of this news of peace. So we are the representatives of Christ, as if God was making a request to you through us: we make our request to you, in the name of Christ, be at peace with God.
For this reason, because we have been made servants of this new order, through the mercy given to us, we are strong:
Let us be judged as servants of Christ, and as those who are responsible for the secret things of God. And it is right for such servants to be safe persons. But it is a small thing to me that I am judged by you or by man's judging; I am not even a judge of myself.
What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? They are but servants who gave you the good news as God gave it to them.
Of which I was made a preacher and an Apostle and a teacher; And for which I undergo these things: but I have no feeling of shame. For I have knowledge of him in whom I have faith, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have given into his care till that day.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Colossians 1
Commentary on Colossians 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 1
We have here,
Col 1:1-2
Col 1:3-8
Here he proceeds to the body of the epistle, and begins with thanksgiving to God for what he had heard concerning them, though he had no personal acquaintance with them, and knew their state and character only by the reports of others.
Col 1:9-11
The apostle proceeds in these verses to pray for them. He heard that they were good, and he prayed that they might be better. He was constant in this prayer: We do not cease to pray for you. It may be he could hear of them but seldom, but he constantly prayed for them.-And desire that you may be filled with the knowledge, etc. Observe what it is that he begs of God for them,
Col 1:12-29
Here is a summary of the doctrine of the gospel concerning the great work of our redemption by Christ. It comes in here not as the matter of a sermon, but as the matter of a thanksgiving; for our salvation by Christ furnishes us with abundant matter of thanksgiving in every view of it: Giving thanks unto the Father, v. 12. He does not discourse of the work of redemption in the natural order of it; for then he would speak of the purchase of it first, and afterwards of the application of it. But here he inverts the order, because, in our sense and feeling of it, the application goes before the purchase. We first find the benefits of redemption in our hearts, and then are led by those streams to the original and fountain-head. The order and connection of the apostle's discourse may be considered in the following manner:-