13 forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any one with any one may have a quarrel, as also the Christ did forgive you -- so also ye;
And we ought -- we who are strong -- to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves; for let each one of us please the neighbor for good, unto edification,
`For, if ye may forgive men their trespasses He also will forgive you -- your Father who `is' in the heavens; but if ye may not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Already, indeed, then, there is altogether a fault among you, that ye have judgments with one another; wherefore do ye not rather suffer injustice? wherefore be ye not rather defrauded? but ye -- ye do injustice, and ye defraud, and these -- brethren!
`Take heed to yourselves, and, if thy brother may sin in regard to thee, rebuke him, and if he may reform, forgive him, and if seven times in the day he may sin against thee, and seven times in the day may turn back to thee, saying, I reform; thou shalt forgive him.'
And he said to her, `Thy sins have been forgiven;' and those reclining with him (at meat) began to say within themselves, `Who is this, who also doth forgive sins?' and he said unto the woman, `Thy faith have saved thee, be going on to peace.'
`But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward will be great, and ye shall be sons of the Highest, because He is kind unto the ungracious and evil; be ye therefore merciful, as also your Father is merciful. `And judge not, and ye may not be judged; condemn not, and ye may not be condemned; release, and ye shall be released.
and he having seen their faith, said to him, `Man, thy sins have been forgiven thee.' And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, `Who is this that doth speak evil words? who is able to forgive sins, except God only?' And Jesus having known their reasonings, answering, said unto them, `What reason ye in your hearts? which is easier -- to say, Thy sins have been forgiven thee? or to say, Arise, and walk? `And that ye may know that the Son of Man hath authority upon the earth to forgive sins -- (he said to the one struck with palsy) -- I say to thee, Arise, and having taken up thy little couch, be going on to thy house.'
Then Peter having come near to him, said, `Sir, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him -- till seven times?' Jesus saith to him, `I do not say to thee till seven times, but till seventy times seven. `Because of this was the reign of the heavens likened to a man, a king, who did will to take reckoning with his servants, and he having begun to take account, there was brought near to him one debtor of a myriad of talents, and he having nothing to pay, his lord did command him to be sold, and his wife, and the children, and all, whatever he had, and payment to be made. The servant then, having fallen down, was bowing to him, saying, Sir, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all; and the lord of that servant having been moved with compassion did release him, and the debt he forgave him. `And, that servant having come forth, found one of his fellow-servants who was owing him an hundred denaries, and having laid hold, he took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that which thou owest. His fellow-servant then, having fallen down at his feet, was calling on him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all; and he would not, but having gone away, he cast him into prison, till he might pay that which was owing. `And his fellow-servants having seen the things that were done, were grieved exceedingly, and having come, shewed fully to their lord all the things that were done; then having called him, his lord saith to him, Evil servant! all that debt I did forgive thee, seeing thou didst call upon me, did it not behove also thee to have dealt kindly with thy fellow-servant, as I also dealt kindly with thee? `And having been wroth, his lord delivered him to the inquisitors, till he might pay all that was owing to him; so also my heavenly Father will do to you, if ye may not forgive each one his brother from your hearts their trespasses.'
`And if thy brother may sin against thee, go and show him his fault between thee and him alone, if he may hear thee, thou didst gain thy brother; and if he may not hear, take with thee yet one or two, that by the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may stand. `And if he may not hear them, say `it' to the assembly, and if also the assembly he may not hear, let him be to thee as the heathen man and the tax-gatherer.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Colossians 3
Commentary on Colossians 3 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 3
Col 3:1-4
The apostle, having described our privileges by Christ in the former part of the epistle, and our discharge from the yoke of the ceremonial law, comes here to press upon us our duty as inferred thence. Though we are made free from the obligation of the ceremonial law, it does not therefore follow that we may live as we list. We must walk the more closely with God in all the instances of evangelical obedience. He begins with exhorting them to set their hearts on heaven, and take them off from this world: If you then have risen with Christ. It is our privilege that we have risen with Christ; that is, have benefit by the resurrection of Christ, and by virtue of our union and communion with him are justified and sanctified, and shall be glorified. Hence he infers that we must seek those things which are above. We must mind the concerns of another world more than the concerns of this. We must make heaven our scope and aim, seek the favour of God above, keep up our communion with the upper world by faith, and hope, and holy love, and make it our constant care and business to secure our title to and qualifications for the heavenly bliss. And the reason is because Christ sits at the right hand of God. He who is our best friend and our head is advanced to the highest dignity and honour in heaven, and has gone before to secure to us the heavenly happiness; and therefore we should seek and secure what he has purchased at so vast an expense, and is taking so much care about. We must live such a life as Christ lived here on earth and lives now in heaven, according to our capacities.
Col 3:5-7
The apostle exhorts the Colossians to the mortification of sin, the great hindrance to seeking the things which are above. Since it is our duty to set our affections upon heavenly things, it is our duty to mortify our members which are upon the earth, and which naturally incline us to the things of the world: "Mortify them, that is, subdue the vicious habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state. Kill them, suppress them, as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them, or as you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds you.'-Your members which are upon the earth; either the members of the body, which are the earthly part of us, and were curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth (Ps. 139:15), or the corrupt affections of the mind, which lead us to earthly things, the members of the body of death, Rom. 7:24. He specifies,
Col 3:8-11
As we are to mortify inordinate appetites, so we are to mortify inordinate passions (v. 8): But now you also put off all these, anger wrath, malice; for these are contrary to the design of the gospel, as well as grosser impurities; and, though they are more spiritual wickedness, have not less malignity in them. The gospel religion introduces a change of the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the dominion of right reason and conscience over appetite and passion. Anger and wrath are bad, but malice is worse, because it is more rooted and deliberate; it is anger heightened and settled. And, as the corrupt principles in the heart must be cut off, so the product of them in the tongue; as blasphemy, which seems there to mean, not so much speaking ill of God as speaking ill of men, giving ill language to them, or raising ill reports of them, and injuring their good name by any evil arts,-filthy communication, that is, all lewd and wanton discourse, which comes from a polluted mind in the speaker and propagates the same defilements in the hearers,-and lying: Lie not one to another (v. 9), for it is contrary both to the law of truth and the law of love, it is both unjust and unkind, and naturally tends to destroy all faith and friendship among mankind. Lying makes us like the devil (who is the father of lies), and is a prime part of the devil's image upon our souls; and therefore we are cautioned against this sin by this general reason: Seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, v. 10. The consideration that we have by profession put away sin and espoused the cause and interest of Christ, that we have renounced all sin and stand engaged to Christ, should fortify us against this sin of lying. Those who have put off the old man have put it off with its deeds; and those who have put on the new man must put on all its deeds-not only espouse good principles but act them in a good conversation. The new man is said to be renewed in knowledge, because an ignorant soul cannot be a good soul. Without knowledge the heart cannot be good, Prov. 19:2. The grace of God works upon the will and affections by renewing the understanding. Light is the first thing in the new creation, as it was in the first: after the image of him who created him. It was the honour of man in innocence that he was made after the image of God; but that image was defaced and lost by sin, and is renewed by sanctifying grace: so that a renewed soul is something like what Adam was in the day he was created. In the privilege and duty of sanctification there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, v. 11. There is now no difference arising from different country or different condition and circumstance of life: it is as much the duty of the one as of the other to be holy, and as much the privilege of the one as of the other to receive from God the grace to be so. Christ came to take down all partition-walls, that all might stand on the same level before God, both in duty and privilege. And for this reason, because Christ is all in all. Christ is a Christian's all, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness. And to those who are sanctified, one as well as another and whatever they are in other respects, he is all in all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end: he is all in all things to them.
Col 3:12-17
The apostle proceeds to exhort to mutual love and compassion: Put on therefore bowels of mercy, v. 12. We must not only put off anger and wrath (as v. 8), but we must put on compassion and kindness; not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well; not only not do hurt to any, but do what good we can to all.
Col 3:18-25
The apostle concludes the chapter with exhortations to relative duties, as before in the epistle to the Ephesians. The epistles which are most taken up in displaying the glory of divine grace, and magnifying the Lord Jesus, are the most particular and distinct in pressing the duties of the several relations. We must never separate the privileges and duties of the gospel religion.
It is probable that the apostle has a particular respect, in all these instances of duty, to the case mentioned 1 Co. 7 of relations of a different religion, as a Christian and heathen, a Jewish convert and an uncircumcised Gentile, where there was room to doubt whether they were bound to fulfil the proper duties of their several relations to such persons. And, if it hold in such cases, it is much stronger upon Christians one towards another, and where both are of the same religion. And how happy would the gospel religion make the world, if it every where prevailed; and how much would it influence every state of things and every relation of life!