29 Whereunto also I toil, combating according to his working, which works in me in power.
For I would have you know what combat I have for you, and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in flesh;
and what the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength,
Epaphras, who is [one] of you, [the] bondman of Christ Jesus, salutes you, always combating earnestly for you in prayers, to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all [the] will of God.
of which I am become minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me, according to the working of his power.
But every one that contends [for a prize] is temperate in all things: *they* then indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but *we* an incorruptible. *I* therefore thus run, as not uncertainly; so I combat, as not beating the air. But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest [after] having preached to others I should be myself rejected.
for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to [his] good pleasure.
and endurest, and hast borne for my name's sake, and hast not wearied:
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, wrestling against sin.
For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that *they* also may obtain the salvation which [is] in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
For ye remember, brethren, our labour and toil: working night and day, not to be chargeable to any one of you, we have preached to you the glad tidings of God.
holding forth [the] word of life, so as to be a boast for me in Christ's day, that I have not run in vain nor laboured in vain.
having the same conflict which ye have seen in me, and now hear of in me.
Only conduct yourselves worthily of the glad tidings of the Christ, in order that whether coming and seeing you, or absent, I may hear of what concerns you, that ye stand firm in one spirit, with one soul, labouring together in the same conflict with the faith of the glad tidings;
Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, (who is not weak towards you, but is powerful among you,
And he said to me, My grace suffices thee; for [my] power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits, for Christ: for when I am weak, then I am powerful.
in stripes, in prisons, in riots, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,
Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him.
and there are distinctions of operations, but the same God who operates all things in all.
But I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in prayers for me to God;
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:-