The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV

by John MacArthur

  1:16 thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. Cf. 2:15; Rom. 8:38; Eph. 1:21; 3:10; 6:12; 1 Pet. 3:22; Jude 6. These are various categories of angels whom Christ created and rules over. There is no comment regarding whether they are holy or fallen, since He is Lord of both groups. The false teachers had incorporated into their heresy the worship of angels (see note on 2:18), including the lie that Jesus was one of them, merely a spirit created by God and inferior to Him. Paul rejected that and made it clear that angels, whatever their rank, whether holy or fallen, are mere creatures, and their Creator is none other than the preeminent One, the Lord Savior, Jesus Christ. The purpose of his catalog of angelic ranks is to show the immeasurable superiority of Christ over any being the false teachers might suggest. All things were created through Him and for Him. Cf. Rom. 11:33–36. See notes on John 1:3; Heb. 1:2. As God, Jesus created the material and spiritual universe for His pleasure and glory.

  1:17 He is before all things. When the universe had its beginning, Christ already existed, thus by definition He must be eternal (Mic. 5:2; John 1:1, 2; 8:58; 1 John 1:1; Rev. 22:13). consist. Lit. “to hold together.” Christ sustains the universe, maintaining the power and balance necessary to life’s existence and continuity (cf. Heb. 1:3).

  1:18 head of the body. Cf. 2:19. Paul uses the human body as a metaphor for the church, of which Christ serves as the “head.” Just as a body is controlled from the brain, so Christ controls every part of the church and gives it life and direction. Cf. Eph. 4:15; 5:23. For a detailed discussion of the church as a body, see notes on 1 Cor. 12:4–27. the beginning. This refers to both source and preeminence. The church had its origins in the Lord Jesus (Eph. 1:4), and He gave life to the church through His sacrificial death and resurrection to become its Sovereign. the firstborn from the dead. See note on v. 15. Jesus was the first chronologically to be resurrected, never to die again. Of all who have been or ever will be raised from the dead, and that includes all men (John 5:28, 29), Christ is supreme (see notes on v. 15; Phil. 2:8–11).

  1:19 all the fullness. A term likely used by those in the Colossian heresy to refer to divine powers and attributes they believed were divided among various emanations (see Introduction: Background and Setting). Paul countered that by asserting that the fullness of deity—all the divine powers and attributes—was not spread out among created beings, but completely dwelt in Christ alone (cf. 2:9).

  1:20 reconcile all things to Himself. The Gr. word for “reconcile” means “to change” or “exchange.” Its NT usage refers to a change in the sinner’s relationship to God. See notes on Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18–21. Man is reconciled to God when God restores man to a right relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. An intensified form for “reconcile” is used in this verse to refer to the total and complete reconciliation of believers and ultimately “all things” in the created universe (cf. Rom. 8:21; 2 Pet. 3:10–13; Rev. 21:1). This text does not teach that, as a result, all will believe; rather it teaches that all will ultimately submit (cf. Phil. 2:9–11). having made peace. See note on Rom. 5:1. God and those He saved are no longer at enmity with each other. the blood of His cross. See note on v. 14.

  1:21 alienated…enemies. The Gr. term for “alienated” means “estranged,” “cut off,” or “separated.” Before they were reconciled, all people were completely estranged from God (cf. Eph. 2:12, 13). The Gr. word for “enemies” can also be translated “hateful.” Unbelievers hate God and resent His holy standard because they love “wicked works” (cf. John 3:19, 20; 15:18, 24, 25). Actually, there is alienation from both sides, since God “hates all workers of iniquity” (Ps. 5:5). reconciled. See note on v. 20.

  1:21, 22 reconciled…through death. Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross that paid the full penalty for the sin of all who believe made reconciliation possible and actual. See notes on 2 Cor. 5:18–21; cf. Rom. 3:25; 5:9, 10; 8:3.

  1:22 holy…in His sight. “Holy” refers to the believer’s positional relationship to God—he is separated from sin and set apart to God by imputed righteousness. This is justification (see notes on Rom. 3:24–26; Phil. 3:8, 9). As a result of the believer’s union with Christ in His death and resurrection, God considers Christians as holy as His Son (Eph. 1:4; 2 Cor. 5:21). Christians are also “blameless” (without blemish) and “above reproach” (no one can bring a charge against them; Rom. 8:33; cf. Phil. 2:15). We are to be presented to Christ, when we meet Him, as a chaste bride (Eph. 5:25–27; 2 Cor. 11:2).

  1:23 continue in the faith. Cf. Acts 11:23; 14:22. Those who have been reconciled will persevere in faith and obedience because, in addition to being declared righteous, they are actually made new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17) with a new disposition that loves God, hates sin, desires obedience, and is energized by the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. John 8:30–32; 1 John 2:19). Rather than defect from the gospel they heard, true believers will remain solid on Christ who is the only foundation (1 Cor. 3:11), and faithful by the enabling grace of God (Phil. 1:6; 2:11–13). For discussion on perseverance of the saints, see note on Matt. 24:13. preached to every creature. Cf. Mark 16:15. The gospel has no racial boundaries. Having reached Rome, where Paul was when he wrote Colossians, it had reached the center of the known world.

  1:24 my sufferings. Paul’s present imprisonment (Acts 28:16, 30; see Introduction to Ephesians: Background and Setting). fill up…what is lacking. Paul was experiencing the persecution intended for Christ. In spite of His death on the cross, Christ’s enemies had not gotten their fill of inflicting injury on Him. So they turned their hatred on those who preached the gospel (cf. John 15:18, 24; 16:1–3). It was in that sense that Paul filled up what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions (see notes on 2 Cor. 1:5; Gal. 6:17). the sake of His body. Paul’s motivation for enduring suffering was to benefit and build Christ’s church. Cf. Phil. 1:13, 29, 30; see notes on 2 Cor. 4:8–15; 6:4–10; 11:23–29; 12:9, 10.

  1:25 stewardship. Cf. 1 Cor. 4:1, 2; 9:17. A steward was a slave who managed his master’s household, supervising the other servants, dispensing resources, and handling business and financial affairs. Paul viewed his ministry as a stewardship from the Lord. The church is God’s household (1 Tim. 3:16), and Paul was given the task of caring for, feeding, and leading the churches, for which he was accountable to God (cf. Heb. 13:17). All believers are responsible for managing the abilities and resources God gives them (see note on 1 Pet. 4:10). to fulfill the word of God. This refers to Paul’s single-minded devotion to completely fulfill the ministry God gave him to preach the whole counsel of God to those to whom God sent him (Acts 20:27; 2 Tim. 4:7).

  1:26 mystery. Cf. 2:2; 4:3. See notes on Matt. 13:11; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 3:4, 5. This refers to truth, hidden until now, but revealed for the first time to the saints in the NT. Such truth includes the mystery of the incarnate God (2:2, 3, 9), Israel’s unbelief (Rom. 11:25), lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:7), the unity of Jew and Gentile made one in the church (Eph. 3:3–6), and the rapture of the church (1 Cor. 15:51). In this passage, the mystery is specifically identified in v. 27.

  1:27 Gentiles…Christ in you. The OT predicted the coming of the Messiah and that the Gentiles would partake of salvation (cf. Is. 42:6; 45:21, 22; 49:6; 52:10; 60:1–3; Pss. 22:27; 65:5; 98:2, 3), but it did not reveal that the Messiah would actually live in each member of His redeemed church, made up mostly of Gentiles. That believers, both Jew and Gentile, now possess the surpassing riches of the indwelling Christ is the glorious revealed mystery (John 14:23; Rom. 8:9, 10; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 1:7, 17, 18; 3:8–10, 16–19). the hope of glory. The indwelling Spirit of Christ is the guarantee to each believer of future glory (Rom. 8:11; Eph. 1:13, 14; 1 Pet. 1:3, 4).

  1:28 perfect. To be complete or mature—to be like Christ. See notes on Rom. 8:29; Phil. 3:12–14, 19, 20; 1 John 2:6; 3:2. This spiritual maturity is defined in 2:2.

  1:29 I…labor, striving according to His working. Here is the balance of Christian living. Paul gave the effort to serve and honor God with all his might. “Labor” refers to work
ing to the point of exhaustion. The Gr. word for “striving” gives us the Eng. word “agonize” and refers to the effort required to compete in an athletic event. At the same time, he knew the effective “striving” or work, with spiritual and eternal results was being done by God through him (see notes on Phil. 2:11–13; cf. 1 Cor. 15:10, 58).

  Colossians 2

  2:1 great conflict. The word means “striving” and comes from the same root as in 1:29. Both the Colossians and Laodiceans were among those for whom Paul struggled so hard in order to bring them to maturity. Laodicea. The chief city of Phrygia in the Roman province of Asia, located just S of Hierapolis in the Lycus River valley (see Introduction: Background and Setting; see note on Rev. 3:14; cf. 4:13).

  2:2 full assurance of understanding. “Understanding” of the fullness of the gospel, along with inner encouragement and shared love, mark mature believers who, thereby, enjoy the “assurance” of salvation (see notes on 2 Pet. 1:5–8). mystery. See note on 1:26. of God…Christ. Cf. 4:3. Leaving out the phrase between “God” and “Christ” (see marginal note), which was probably not in the original text, changes nothing. The point is that the mystery Paul referred to here is that the Messiah Christ is God incarnate Himself (cf. 1 Tim. 3:16).

  2:3 all the treasures. Cf. vv. 9, 10; 1:19. The false teachers threatening the Colossians claimed to possess a secret wisdom and transcendent knowledge available only to the spiritual elite. In sharp contrast, Paul declared that all the richness of truth necessary for salvation, sanctification, and glorification is found in Jesus Christ, who Himself is God revealed. Cf. John 1:14; Rom. 11:33–36; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30; 2:6–8; Eph. 1:8, 9; 3:8, 9.

  2:4 lest anyone should deceive you. Paul did not want the Colossians to be deceived by the persuasive rhetoric of the false teachers which assaulted the person of Christ. That is why throughout chaps. 1, 2 he stressed Christ’s deity, and His sufficiency both to save believers and bring them to spiritual maturity.

  2:5 absent in the flesh…with you in spirit. Because he was a prisoner, Paul was unable to be present with the Colossians. That did not mean, however, that his love and concern for them was any less (cf. 1 Cor. 5:3, 4; 1 Thess. 2:17). Their “good order” and “steadfast faith” (both military terms depicting a solid rank of soldiers drawn up for battle) brought great joy to the apostle’s heart.

  2:6 walk in Him. “Walk” is the familiar NT term denoting the believer’s daily conduct (1:10; 4:5; Rom. 6:4; 8:1, 4; 13:13; 1 Cor. 7:17; 2 Cor. 5:7; 10:3; 12:18; Gal. 5:16, 25; 6:16; Eph. 2:10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15; Phil. 3:16–18; 1 Thess. 2:12; 4:1, 12; 2 Thess. 3:11; 1 John 1:6, 7; 2:6; 2 John 6; 3 John 3, 4). To walk in Christ is to live a life patterned after His.

  2:7 the faith. The sense here is objective, referring to the truth of Christian doctrine. Spiritual maturity develops upward from the foundation of biblical truth as taught and recorded by the apostles. Cf. 3:16. This rooting, building, and establishing is in sound doctrine (cf. 1 Tim. 4:6; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Titus 2:1).

  2:8 cheat you. Here is the term for robbery. False teachers who are successful in getting people to believe lies, rob them of truth, salvation, and blessing. philosophy and empty deceit. “Philosophy” (lit. “love of wisdom”) appears only here in the NT. The word referred to more than merely the academic discipline, but described any theory about God, the world, or the meaning of life. Those embracing the Colossian heresy used it to describe the supposed higher knowledge they claimed to have attained. Paul, however, equates the false teachers’ philosophy with “empty deceit”; that is, with worthless deception. Cf. 1 Tim. 6:20; see note on 2 Cor. 10:5. the basic principles of the world. See note on v. 20; Gal. 4:3. Far from being advanced, profound knowledge, the false teachers’ beliefs were simplistic and immature like all the rest of the speculations, ideologies, philosophies, and psychologies the fallen satanic and human system invents.

  2:9 fullness of the Godhead. Christ possesses the fullness of the divine nature and attributes (see notes on 1:19; John 1:14–16). bodily. In Greek philosophical thought, matter was evil; spirit was good. Thus, it was unthinkable that God would ever take on a human body. Paul refutes that false teaching by stressing the reality of Christ’s incarnation. Jesus was not only fully God, but fully human as well. See notes on Phil. 2:5–11.

  2:10 complete in Him. See notes on vv. 3, 4; cf. John 1:16; Eph. 1:3. Believers are complete in Christ, both positionally by the imputed perfect righteousness of Christ (see note on 1:22), and the complete sufficiency of all heavenly resources for spiritual maturity (see notes on 2 Pet. 1:3, 4). the head of all principality and power. Jesus Christ is the creator and ruler of the universe and all its spiritual beings (see note on 1:16), not a lesser being emanating from God as the Colossian errorists maintained (see Introduction: Background and Setting).

  2:11, 12 circumcision made without hands. See note on Gen. 17:11. Circumcision symbolized man’s need for cleansing of the heart (cf. Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4; 9:26; Acts 7:51; Rom. 2:29) and was the outward sign of that cleansing of sin that comes by faith in God (Rom. 4:11; Phil. 3:3). At salvation, believers undergo a spiritual “circumcision” “by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh” (cf. Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:17; Phil. 3:3; Titus 3:5). This is the new birth, the new creation in conversion. The outward affirmation of the already accomplished inner transformation is now the believer’s baptism by water (Acts 2:38).

  2:13 dead in your trespasses. See notes on Eph. 2:1, 5. So bound in the sphere of sin, the world (Eph. 2:12), the flesh (Rom. 8:8), and the devil (1 John 5:19) as to be unable to respond to spiritual stimuli; totally devoid of spiritual life. Paul further defines this condition of the unsaved in 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 4:17–19; Titus 3:3. He has made alive together with Him. See notes on Eph. 2:1, 5. Only through union with Jesus Christ (vv. 10–12) can those hopelessly dead in their sins receive eternal life (cf. Eph. 2:5). Note that God takes the initiative and exerts the life-giving power to awaken and unite sinners with His Son; the spiritually dead have no ability to make themselves alive (cf. Rom. 4:17; 2 Cor. 1:9). forgiven you all trespasses. Cf. 1:14. God’s free (Rom. 3:24) and complete (Rom. 5:20; Eph. 1:7) forgiveness of guilty sinners who put their faith in Jesus Christ is the most important reality in Scripture (cf. Pss. 32:1; 130:3, 4; Is. 1:18; 55:7; Mic. 7:18; Matt. 26:28; Acts 10:43; 13:38, 39; Titus 3:4–7; Heb. 8:12).

  2:14 wiped out the handwriting. The Gr. word translated “handwriting” referred to the handwritten certificate of debt by which a debtor acknowledged his indebtedness. All people (Rom. 3:23) owe God an unpayable debt for violating His law (Gal. 3:10; James 2:10; cf. Matt. 18:23–27), and are thus under sentence of death (Rom. 6:23). Paul graphically compares God’s forgiveness of believers’ sins to wiping ink off a parchment. Through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, God has totally erased our certificate of indebtedness and made our forgiveness complete. nailed it to the cross. This is another metaphor for forgiveness. The list of the crimes of a crucified criminal was nailed to the cross with that criminal to declare the violations he was being punished for (as in the case of Jesus, as noted in Matt. 27:37). Believers’ sins were all put to Christ’s account, nailed to His cross as He paid the penalty in their place for them all, thus satisfying the just wrath of God against crimes requiring punishment in full.

  2:15 Having disarmed. In yet another element of the cross work, Paul tells that the cross spelled the ultimate doom of Satan and his evil host of fallen angels (cf. Gen. 3:15; John 12:31; 16:11; Heb. 2:14). principalities and powers. See note on 1:16. While His body was dead, His living, divine spirit actually went to the abode of demons and announced His triumph over sin, Satan, death, and hell. See notes on 1 Pet. 3:18, 19. made a public spectacle…triumphing over them. The picture is that of a victorious Roman general parading his defeated enemies through the streets of Rome (see notes on 2 Cor. 2:14–16). Christ won the victory over the demon forces on the cross, where their efforts to halt God’s redemptive plan were ultimately defeated. For more on that triumphant imagery, see
notes on 2 Cor. 2:14–16.

  2:16, 17 Paul warns the Colossians against trading their freedom in Christ for a set of useless, man-made, legalistic rules (cf. Gal. 5:1). Legalism is powerless to save or to restrain sin.

  2:16 food…drink. The false teachers sought to impose some sort of dietary regulations, probably based on those of the Mosaic law (cf. Lev. 11). Since they were under the New Covenant, the Colossians (like all Christians) were not obligated to observe the OT dietary restrictions (cf. Mark 7:14–19; Acts 10:9–15; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 8:8; 1 Tim. 4:1–5; Heb. 9:9, 10). festival. The annual religious celebrations of the Jewish calendar (e.g., Passover, Pentecost, or Tabernacles; cf. Lev. 23). new moon. The monthly sacrifice offered on the first day of each month (Num. 10:10; 28:11–14; Ps. 81:3). sabbaths. The weekly celebration of the seventh day, which pictured God’s rest from creation. The NT clearly teaches that Christians are not required to keep it (see notes on Acts 20:7; Rom. 14:5, 6).

  2:17 shadow…substance. The ceremonial aspects of the OT law (dietary regulations, festivals, sacrifices) were mere shadows pointing to Christ. Since Christ, the reality has come, the shadows have no value. Cf. Heb. 8:5; 10:1.

  2:18 cheat you. Paul warns the Colossians not to allow the false teachers to cheat them of their temporal blessings or eternal reward (cf. 2 John 8) by luring them into irrational mysticism. false humility. Since the false teachers took great delight in it, their “humility” was actually pride, which God hates (Prov. 6:16, 17). worship of angels. The beginning of a heresy that was to plague the region around Colosse for several centuries and far beyond—a practice the Bible clearly prohibits (Matt. 4:10; Rev. 19:10; 22:8, 9). which he has not seen. Like virtually all cults and false religions, the Colossian false teachers based their teaching on visions and revelations they had supposedly received. Their claims were false, since Jesus Christ is God’s final and complete (see notes on vv. 3, 4) revelation to mankind (Heb. 1:1, 2). fleshly mind. See note on Rom. 8:6. This describes the unregenerate and is further defined in Eph. 4:17–19.