Commentary on Colossians 2.1–2.23

“For I want you to know how great a concern I have for you and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may receive consolation, being instructed in love unto all the riches of the fulness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He testifies that he was no less concerned for those whom he had never seen in the flesh than for those to whom he preached in person; so that they might know that they were loved by him with no less affection because he had not seen them than the others with whom he was; so as to warm their minds in love, and make them ready through the letter, and receive knowledge of the sacrament of God in Christ, recognizing that these are the riches of wisdom and knowledge, if Christ is recognized as to be adored in the fulness of his deity. The whole mystery of God's sacrament, then, is in Christ. For he is the one in whom every creature will perish unless it hopes; so that the power of all things is in him, so that whoever knows him seems to have the knowledge of all things whatever, and no other besides him need be sought to be worshipped; because the strength of all powers is in him; for all have from him. For though he is one, he can do all things; wherefore he is also called the head of all, so that through him all may be seen to subsist. Rightly, then, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are said to be hidden in him. For the whole reason of the knowledge of the entire creation, above and on earth, must be in him who is head of them all; whether of angels, or of the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or other things, all expert knowledge is in their author; so that whoever recognizes him seeks nothing further, neither wisdom nor power, because he has recognized him in whom is perfect power and perfect wisdom. For whatever he thinks he finds elsewhere, he will find fully and abundantly in him. For what is wiser than Solomon? What more prudent than Daniel? To whom God gave wisdom above the others for this reason, to make known to unbelievers that he is the author of all wisdom. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar says to Daniel, marvelling at his wisdom: “Truly your God is himself the living God, and the revealer of mysteries” (Dan 2:47). That all wisdom and knowledge is in Christ is hidden from every unbeliever, because they do not hold astrology in the Gospels, nor geometry in the Apostle, nor arithmetic or music in the prophets; which are despised by our people for this reason, that they do not pertain to salvation, but rather send people into error and call them away from God; so that, while they devote themselves to these with the disputations of reasonings, they take no care of their soul. For what is such true wisdom as to have recognized what profits and to have despised what harms? For it harms, because it hinders the soul from caring for itself. Not undeservedly, then, the one who has recognized Christ has found the treasure of wisdom and knowledge; for he has recognized what is useful to him. “I say this so that no one may deceive you with subtlety of speech. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and supplying what is lacking for the benefit of your faith in Christ.” He admonishes them lest their minds be led away by the conversations and cunning wickedness of evil men; because the wise of the world, with a certain art and the minutiae of disputations, are eager to ensnare the minds of the simple, so as to draw them away by the reasoning of worldly things from the hope that is in Christ. Hence the Apostle says he is present there in spirit, so that, having reverence for him before their eyes, they might keep away from such men. For if the spirit of the prophet Elisha saw the fraud of Gehazi going to Naaman the Syrian to receive in his name what had not been commanded him, and Naaman, coming down with a ready mind, giving him more than he was asked (2 Kgs 5:26), how much more could the Apostle see in the spirit the things he spoke of! For the grace in the apostles was greater than in the prophets. And to make them more ready concerning the gospel tradition, he says that he rejoices in the arrangement of their way of life, so that, knowing how God is pleased, they might become firmer in it, and, made worthy by it, might learn the sense of their faith for the advancement of its benefit.

“As, then, you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, as you have been taught, walking in it with thanksgiving.” He admonishes and exhorts them that their devotion may not diminish, and that they may not withdraw from the faith they had attained and, overturned by crooked fables, receive Christ otherwise than they had learned. For many corrupters of the faith were going about to seduce the simple, proclaiming Christ deceitfully and with pretence; he warns that they be avoided with great caution, so that, steadfast and firm upon the foundation of the Trinity, in hope of things to come they may give abundant thanks for God's mercy.

“See that no one plunders you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ; for in him dwells all the fulness of divinity bodily.” He calls earthly the philosophy by which those are usually seduced who desire to be judged wise in the world. It is composed of arguments and the subtlety of certain minutiae, as though it had investigated natural causes, having some things mixed in that are encouragements or lessons for a good life, arranged sometimes about measures, also about numbers, sometimes about the qualities and quantities of the elements. Whoever falls into its disputations will escape with difficulty and rarely; for he is held by plausible causes and invented things, thinking nothing so true as what is seen and understood in the elements. And because present things that are seen with the eyes seem sweet and delightful, they seduce some, who think the spiritual reason is to be despised and laughed at through despair of the future, assigning all power to the stars, liable to fleshly reasoning; so that it is not to be believed that heavy things can be lifted to heaven, or light things come to earth, or anything bodily be generated without a mixture of things, opposing the power and providence of God. For they know that in the ancient divine books of the Hebrews many deeds are read done through Moses that human reason does not grasp; likewise in the new books things done by the Lord or through the apostles that fleshly treatment forbids to be believed. This tradition or philosophy, then, he calls deceitful and empty, because it is ordered not by the power of God but by the weakness of human reasoning, which confines God's power within its own knowledge, so that he may not be believed to act otherwise than fleshly reason holds; because they assign divinity in diversity to the individual elements for worship, so as to bind the minds of the unskilled, lest they reach out to the true God. Wherefore he warns that this tradition be guarded against, because it is a worshipper of the world, not of God, who is one; and it draws not to Christ but away from Christ, in whom is the perfection of divinity. For all things that the Father has he gave to the Son, when he begot him in the fulness of divinity bodily; so that, since he is the head and the creation his body, whatever a heavenly creature is thought to be able to do may be believed to be wholly and fully in Christ, so that no one may think anyone else is to be worshipped. For whatever great thing he thinks is in anyone, he will find more in him; because all have from him, as members from the head; but he is always full.

“And you are filled in him, who is the head of every Principality and Power.” He indicates that more is given to believers than can be comprehended in the elements; because one who is in Christ is filled with the abundance of divinity, which the elements do not have. Indeed, the Holy Spirit dwells in believers, which could not be granted to the elements; because it was unworthy and unfitting that the invisible should dwell in a visible substance, and the incorporeal in things that are perceptible by the senses. Let their worshippers, then, hear and come and believe in Christ, so that they may become greater than those whom they now worship.

“In whom you also were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand, in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism; in which you also rose with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Those are circumcised in Christ who, having cut away the worship of all human tradition, are joined to Christ, circumcised in heart, not in flesh, that is, serving in spirit, not in flesh; so that from earthly things to heavenly, from human to divine, they may be converted from error to truth, joined to their head and author by love. With him they were buried in baptism, but they rose through faith in God, of whom they believe that by Christ's example he will raise them from the dead. For there the old man is put off and the new is taken on: one dies to sins so as to live to righteousness; one renounces the elements so as to be joined to Christ, holding as the pledge of the future resurrection the example of the Saviour, who rose from the dead. He admonishes them, then, to persevere in renouncing the pomp and illusions of Satan, who urges the worship of the elements for this reason, to call them away from God, wishing to make human beings sharers of his apostasy. For since he cannot urge worship under his own name, for he is abhorred for that very name, he tries to fulfil his will under another's name.

“And you, when you were dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him, forgiving us all offences, having blotted out the handwriting that was against us, the decree that was contrary to us; and he took it out of the way, and fixed it to the cross; and, stripping the principalities and powers, he made a display of them with authority, triumphing over them in himself.” He says that the gentiles were dead: first, because they were unwilling to receive the law that was given as testimony to the Creator and to condemn vices; then, because of the impiety of their sins, they were unworthy of life; and therefore he distinguished them from the Jews, as those who had been enemies of the one God. But the Jews, living in the confession of the one God, at Christ's coming learn the mystery of God that they were awaiting for their justification, so that in what had stolen upon them, because it is impossible to be without sin, they might receive remission. Hence after the case of the gentiles he brings in the Jews too, saying, “forgiving us all offences,” so that after the particular he might add the general; because he forgave all offences to all. But because, as the Lord says, “the one to whom more has been forgiven ought to love more” (Luke 7:43, 47), he therefore admonishes the gentiles that, considering the causes of their evils and what grace they received from God in Christ, they be careful with all devotion about service to him, by whom they have been freed from various penalties of death. How, then, did he forgive us all offences? “Having blotted out,” he says, “the handwriting that was adverse to us.” And what it is to blot out he added, saying: “And he took it out of the way.” So he blotted it out when he took it out of the way. And he took it out of the way when, he says, he fixed it to the cross. And to fix to the cross he said is to strip the principalities and powers publicly and triumph over them in Christ. These things, as they appear, are obscure, and therefore must be clarified with care. This is God's protection, which the Apostle sets forth through the significance of various causes. For he recounts many acts by which the human race might come to pardon: so that he not only remitted our own offences but also took away that sin which was from Adam's transgression (which he called the handwriting in decrees), which did not allow us to rise from the dead; because if he had not taken this too out of the way, those who had received remission, leaving here, would be held there in the underworld. Moreover, all offences were forgiven so that they might rise from the dead. For since death is from sin, when sin is removed the resurrection of the dead comes about; which indeed could not have happened unless he had fixed sin to the cross. For while the Saviour, by not sinning, conquers sin, which held man liable, and moreover is killed by it though innocent, so he crucified sin. For sin conquered is said to be put to death; for the cross is not the Saviour's death but sin's. For an innocent man who is killed makes those by whom he is killed guilty. And by sin let us understand the principalities and powers, at whose instigation the first Adam sinned. For this name is to be referred to its authors, whose death he signified in the stripping; for this is their death: that, conquered by the Saviour, when they are stripped of the souls they held in captivity, they are put to death. For they were made guilty; because, though they held souls with this authority, because they had sinned, they themselves were found greater sinners when they killed him who had conquered them by not sinning. And so they were justly stripped, as he said, publicly, that is, on the cross; which is to be triumphed over openly by God in Christ. For he is triumphed over who is openly conquered and whose spoils are displayed; for he who insulted others is shown to all laid low. But the decree he speaks of is not what the pagans call fate; because they assert that it is not contrary to all, for they say some are happy from it and others unhappy. But he says this decree was contrary to all; for it was a sentence adverse to all human beings.

“Let no one, then, judge you in food or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or new moons or the sabbath; which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ's.” Since all the hope and confidence of life is in Christ, he commanded that we ought to be subject to no superstition or law. Wherefore those who make a noise, or whisper something that does not pertain to the faith of Christ, are to be despised; but he alone is to be followed, through whom death was conquered and the resurrection of the dead restored. For certain Jews are accustomed to judge the faithful because they eat foods forbidden through Moses, though God has made all things clean; but the Jews, judged unworthy to eat of these, were forbidden the better things. They are also accustomed to reproach us because we despise their feast days, or because we do not observe the beginnings of months, which they call new moons; but above all that we do not keep the sabbath days, so as to spend them in idleness and feasting with luxury; which pertains more to offence than to grace. But all these things are the body of Christ, because the names are from the effects of the elements. Hence he says in the gospel: “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath” (Matt 12:8); for through him are all things, which indeed were so given through Moses as to be a shadow or figure of things to come, so that, when the truth appeared, the figure would cease. For as, when the emperor is absent, his image has authority, but when he is present it does not, so too these things were to be observed in their time before the Lord's coming, but now that he is present they lack authority. Does anyone acting in the place of a master rule when the master himself is present? If the deputies of prefects are made private persons when the prefects are present, how much more must servants, when their master is present, be seen to be themselves in service!

“Let no one deceive you, wishing it in humility of mind and superstition of angels, exalting himself in the things he sees, puffed up without cause by the mind of his flesh, and not holding the head, from which the whole body, supplied and knit together through joints and bonds, grows with the growth of God.” What above he warned must be guarded against under the name of philosophy, he now teaches more plainly must be watched for in those who, devoted to earthly wisdom, assert that the things that lie before the eyes or appear are to be worshipped; so that souls, delighted by their worship, may be held bound beneath the firmament, lest they reach above the firmament to the higher heavens, to adore the God of all. This is brought about by the work of the enemy, so that he may always keep souls humbled upon the earth, where he knows he has been cast down from heaven and will always be by God's just judgment, feigning religion though it is the greatest sacrilege. For they are puffed up, observing the motion of the stars, which he calls angels, not by divine authority but by human superstition, which profits nothing but loss: unwilling to hold the faith of Christ, who is the creator and Lord of all. For from him all have their origin; wherefore they are also called his body, provided they acknowledge him. For, turned to him, they are rebuilt, knit together in faith in him, the gospel supplying all as members of a body in the love of Christ, so that they may make increase for God. For when they return to him whom they had deserted through error, diminishing the abundance of his riches when they deny that they are his, they make increase for God, because they are won from the lost. This concerns the pagans; again he says of the Jews that they too serve under the elements, not the elements.

“If, then, you have died with Christ to the elements of this world, why, as if living in this world, do you lay down decrees?” Everyone who is baptized in Christ dies to the world; for he renounces all the errors of superstitions, so as to cultivate the faith of Christ alone. For when the things added to natural righteousness are removed, there remains the discipline given by God, through which one lives to God through the hope that is in Christ; but one dies to those to whom one had been subject through error, while denying those whom one had presumed to be gods. And so it comes about that, through the enmity of renunciation, man and the worship of the elements are said to be dead to each other. For in saying “world” he signifies the error of the flesh; for everything that is seen is assigned to the flesh. This is why the apostle John says: “Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15); that is, let us love neither the elements of which the world is composed nor the errors that human tradition has invented, but Christ alone, who died for us, so as to join us, from among the lost, to his body. Those, then, who have been buried with Christ have died to the elements, so as to care nothing for them; for they have learned to hold to the things above, which can give everlasting life. For these things neither give the present life and also hinder the future from being grasped. But one who after baptism is in doubt about some things, thinking certain of the old things are to be revered, shows that he lives to the elements, which he decrees are to be worshipped, or doubts are to be despised; he will remain within the circles of the world, estranged from God, because, clothed with the old man, he will not be able to pass beyond fleshly things.

“Do not touch, do not defile, do not taste, do not handle; which are all for destruction and corruption through misuse, according to the precepts and doctrines of men.” He forbids in every way hope in worldly things, because it is empty: that they not worship them, not assent, not think that what they promise is anything but corruption. For their use and worship produce destruction; because they are precepts and doctrines not of God but of men, in which hope is vain; since human error invented these things against the Creator, so that, keeping people from faith in the one God, it might bring in the superstition of many gods.

“Which indeed have a show of wisdom in pretence of religion and humility of mind, for the harassing of the body, not in any honour, for the satisfying and care of the flesh.” They think they have a show of wisdom from this, that they apply the name of religion to human tradition, so that it is called religion, though it is sacrilege; because what is against the Author has been invented by a sacrilegious mind. So he invents a name, so that he may assert as true the things that are false; and he humbles human minds on earth, so that they do not raise themselves to things above; or, worshipping earthly things, they fall away from the heavenly heights and harm the body whose head is Christ according to the making of the first plan. For, weighed down by this, they could not be joined above to their head, so as to be restored in him, made honourable; but, as if cut off from the first part of the body, giving themselves wholly to the world to satisfy the sense of the flesh. For human tradition is the fattening of the fleshly sense, which says that what the providence of the flesh has handed on is enough; for it seems to have a show of wisdom according to the flesh, because every bodily birth is from the elements; and therefore they say it is not unfitting to bow to these, by whose governance the human race is ruled, so that one should subject oneself to the brightest things one sees in the world; and that spiritual things ought not to be sought, because, they say, it has been granted to use these alone as guides; and by this reasoning they neglect the Author.