Homilies on Colossians 6.1–6.4

… represented him as entering. And he rightly said, “make spoil” … [as one who undermines a mound gives no] perceptible sign, but it gradually sinks; so too that man does. “Beware,” then; for this is his work, to give no perception of himself. “Through philosophy.” Then, since philosophy seems a solemn thing, he added, “and empty deceit.” For there is also a good deceit, by which many have been deceived, which one should not even call deceit; of which Jeremiah says, “You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.” For such a thing one should not even call deceit; for Jacob too deceived his father, but it was not deceit but a dispensation. “Through philosophy,” he says, “and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.” For the present he touches on refuting the observance of days, calling sun and moon the elements of the world, as he said in the Letter to the Galatians too: “How do you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements?” And he did not say “observances of days,” but spoke of the whole present world, to show its cheapness; for if the world is nothing, much more the elements. Having first shown how much good they had received, how much kindness, he then brings in the accusation, to show it the greater and to win the hearers. This the prophets too always do: they first show the benefits and then magnify the accusations, as Isaiah says, “I begot sons and raised them up, but they rejected me”; and again, “My people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you, or how have I troubled you?”; and David, as when he says, “I heard you in the secret place of the storm”; and again, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” And everywhere you will find it so. Indeed, even if those men had something to say, they ought not to have been obeyed; but as it is, even apart from the benefits, one must flee those things. “And not according to Christ,” he says. For indeed, even if it were half-and-half, so that one could serve both this and that, not even so ought it to be; but as it is, it does not let you be according to Christ. From there they bring these things. Having first shaken the Greek observances, he then also removes the Jewish ones. For both Greeks and Jews observed many things, the former from philosophy, the latter from the law. He first, then, attacks the former, where the accusation is greater. How “not according to Christ”? “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are filled in him, who is the head of all principality and authority.”

See how, in accusing these, he undermines that other, first setting down the solution and then the objection. For such a solution is not suspected, and the hearer accepts it the more, as though the speaker were not aiming at this. For in the other case he even strives not to be defeated, but here not. “For in him dwells”: that is, God dwells in him. But lest you think that he is enclosed as in a body, he says, “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are filled in him.” Others say he means the church, filled by his Godhead, as he says elsewhere, “of him who fills all in all,” and that “bodily” is said here as of a body in the head. How then did he not add, “which is the church”? Some say he is speaking of the Father, that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him; but wrongly. First, because “dwelling” is not said properly of God; second, because the fullness is not what receives; for “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of it,” and again the apostle says, “until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in”: the whole is called fullness. Then what does “bodily” mean? As in a head. And why does he say the same thing again, “and you are filled in him”? What is it, then? That you have nothing less than he: as it dwelt in him, so in you. For Paul always strains to bring us near to Christ, as when he says, “He raised us up together and seated us together”; and, “If we endure, we shall also reign with him”; and, “How will he not also with him freely give us all things?”; and he calls us fellow heirs. Then about his dignity: “And he is the head of all principality and authority.” He who is higher than all, their cause, is not of one essence with them. Then he brought in the benefit wonderfully, and much more wonderfully than in the Letter to the Romans. For there he says, “circumcision of the heart, in spirit, not in letter”; but here, “in Christ”: “in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.” See how near the reality he comes. “In the putting off,” he says; he did not say merely “in the taking off.” “Of the body of the sins”: he means the old life. He turns these things over continually and in various ways, as also above he said, “who delivered us from the authority of …” “… that we should be holy and blameless.” No longer, he says, is circumcision with a knife, but in Christ himself; for no hand performs this circumcision, as there, but the Spirit; and it circumcises not a part but the whole man. This is a body, and that is a body; but the one is circumcised in the flesh, the other spiritually; but not as the Jews; for you have put off not flesh but sins. When and where? In baptism. And what he calls circumcision, he again calls burial. See how again he passes to the ordinances. “Of the sins,” he says, “of the flesh,” that is, the things they did in the flesh. He says something greater than circumcision; for they did not throw away what was circumcised, but destroyed it, abolished it. “Buried with him,” he says, “in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” But it is not only a burial; for see what he says: “in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” He said well; for it is wholly of faith. You believed that God can raise, and so you were raised. Then also the trustworthiness: “who raised him,” he says, “from the dead.” Already he shows the resurrection. “And you, who were once dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him.” For you were under sentence to die. And if you died, yet not simply: it was a useful death. See how again he shows what they deserved, by what he added: “having forgiven us all our trespasses, having blotted out the handwriting against us in ordinances, which was contrary to us; and he took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having stripped off the principalities and authorities, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” “Having forgiven us,” he says, “all our trespasses.” Which? Those that caused deadness. And what? Did he let it remain? No, but he even blotted it out; he did not only cross it out, but blotted it out, so that it does not even appear. “In ordinances,” he says. What ordinances? Faith. So it is enough to believe. He set not works against works, but faith against works. And what after this? Blotting out is again an intensification of forgiving. “And he took it,” he says, “out of the way.” And not even so did he keep it, but tore it up, “nailing it to the cross.” “Having stripped off the principalities and authorities, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Nowhere has he spoken so grandly. Do you see how great an eagerness he showed for the handwriting to be destroyed? For instance: we were all under sin and punishment; he, being punished, abolished both the sin and the punishment; and he was punished on the cross. There, then, he nailed it; then, as having authority, he tore it up. What handwriting? Either he means what they said to Moses, “All that God has said we will do and hear”; or, if not this, that we owe God obedience; or, if not this, that the devil held the handwriting which God made with Adam, saying, “In the day you eat of the tree you will die.” The devil, then, held this handwriting. And Christ did not hand it to us, but tore it up himself, which is the mark of one who forgives with joy. “Having stripped off the principalities and authorities.” He means the devilish powers; either because human nature had put them on, or because they held it as by a handle: having become man, he stripped off the handle. This is “he made a show of them.” And he said this well; for never was the devil so disgraced. For expecting to hold him, he lost even those he had; and when the body was being nailed, the dead were rising. There the devil received the blow, receiving the mortal wound from a dead body. And just as an athlete who thinks he has struck his opponent himself receives a mortal blow from him, so too Paul shows that to die openly is the devil's disgrace. For the devil would have done everything, if he could, to persuade men that Christ did not die. For since all the time afterwards was proof of the resurrection, but if that moment had not proved his death, there would have been no other time to do so, he therefore died publicly with all looking on, but did not rise publicly, knowing that the time after would bear witness to the truth. For that the serpent was slaughtered up on the tree while the world looked on, this is the marvel. And what did the devil not do so that he might die unnoticed? Hear Pilate saying, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; for I find no fault in him.” And again the Jews said to him, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So, since he had received the mortal blow and did not come down, he was also handed over to burial; for it was possible for him to rise at once, but he did not, so that the fact might be believed. And yet in private deaths … but here not even this is possible. For the soldiers did not break his legs as they did the others', so that it would be manifest that he had died. And those who buried the body are known; that is why the Jews themselves seal the stone with the soldiers. For this was what was most of all striven for, that it should not be obscured. And the witnesses are from the enemies, from the Jews. Hear them saying to Pilate, “That deceiver said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I rise.’ Command, then, that the tomb be guarded by the soldiers.” And this happened with them sealing it. And hear them saying this also afterwards to the apostles: “You want to bring this man's blood upon us.” In the same way he did not allow the cross itself to be a matter of shame. For since angels have suffered nothing of the kind, he does everything on its behalf, showing that the death accomplished something great. For it became like a single combat: death struck Christ, but Christ, having been struck, afterwards destroyed it; the one who seemed to be immortal was being destroyed by a dead body; and the world saw this. And the marvellous thing is that he did not entrust this to another. But there has come to be another handwriting again, not such as the former.

Let us see, then, that we are not caught by this, after saying, “I renounce you, Satan, and I join myself to you, Christ.” Or rather this should not be called a handwriting, but a covenant. For a handwriting is when someone is held liable for debts; but this is a covenant: it has no penalty, nor does it say, “If this, or if not this.” Moses, sprinkling the blood of the covenant, spoke thus, and God promised eternal life. All these things are a covenant. There, a slave to a master; here, a friend to a friend. There, “In the day you eat,” he says, “you will die”: at once a threat; but here nothing of the kind. Here there is nakedness, and there nakedness; but there he was stripped when he sinned, because he sinned; here he is stripped so that he may be freed. Then he put off the glory which he had; now this man puts off the old man, and before going down into the water he puts it off as easily as his clothes. He is anointed, like athletes about to enter the stadium. For he is born at once, and not little by little like that first man, but immediately; and he is anointed not as the priests of old, on the head only, but more fully. For the priest was anointed on the head, the right ear, the hand, so as to rouse him to obedience and good works; but this man is anointed all over. For he comes not only to be taught, but also to compete and to train, and he is led into another creation. For when he confesses his faith unto eternal life, he has confessed another creation. God took dust from the earth and formed man; but now no longer dust, but the Holy Spirit: by this he is formed, by this he is shaped, as Christ himself was in the womb of the Virgin. He did not say “in paradise,” but “in heaven.” For do not think, since the earth lies beneath, that you are on earth: you have been transferred there, to heaven; there these things happen, among angels; God takes your soul above, reshapes it above, sets you beside the royal throne. You are formed in the water, and you receive a spirit in place of a soul. After you are formed he does not bring wild beasts to you, but demons and their leader, and says, “Tread upon serpents and scorpions.” He does not say, “Let us make man according to our image and likeness,” but what? He gives them power to become sons of God, who, it says, were born not of blood but of God. Then, so that you may not listen to the serpent, he at once teaches you to say, “I renounce you,” instead of “Whatever you say, I will not listen to you.” Then, so that he may not catch you through others, he says, “and your pomp and your worship and your angels.” He placed man no longer to guard paradise, but to live as a citizen in heaven. For as soon as he has come up, he utters these words: “Our Father who art in heaven, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” No plain meets your sight, you see no tree nor spring, but at once you embrace the Master himself, you are mingled with his body, you are mixed with the body that lies above, where the devil cannot approach. There is no woman there for him to approach and deceive as the weaker; for “there is,” it says, “neither female nor male.” Unless you go down to him, he will not be able to step where you are; for you are in heaven, and heaven is inaccessible to the devil. It has no tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but only the tree of life. No longer is a woman taken from your side, but we are all one from the side of Christ. For if those anointed by men suffer nothing from snakes, neither will the serpent persuade you of anything, so long as you are anointed, so that you can hold the serpent and strangle it, and tread upon serpents and scorpions. But as the gifts are great, so great too is our punishment: one who falls from this paradise cannot dwell opposite paradise, nor return to the place from which we fell. But what after this? Gehenna, and the undying worm. But may none of us become liable to this punishment; but living virtuously, let us be eager to do what pleases him, so as both to be freed from punishment and to obtain the eternal good things, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, might, honour, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.