Homilies on Colossians

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.5 · 1.6–2.4 · 2.5–2.6 · 3.1–3.5 · 4.1–4.4 · 5.1–5.5 · 6.1–6.4 · 7.1–7.5 · 8.1–8.4 · 8.5 · 10.1–10.5 · 11.1–12.1 · 12.2–12.7

1. 1.1Chrysostom places Colossians among Paul's prison letters, dates it, states its subject (worship through angels and Jewish and Greek observances), and comments on the greeting.
2. 1.2Chrysostom comments on Col 1:3–8: Paul's thanksgiving and prayer, the hope laid up in heaven, the gospel bearing fruit in all the world, and Epaphras as Christ's minister.
3. 1.3Chrysostom contrasts friendships of ordinary life and of nature with spiritual love, which nothing can dissolve, and urges his hearers to invite the poor and maimed to their tables.
4. 1.4Chrysostom pictures a table of the poor and a table of the powerful and argues that the poor man's table, where Christ reclines, gives more freedom, honour, and pleasure.
5. 1.5Chrysostom argues that the poor man's table spares the host anxiety, earns God's repayment, and ends in hymns and thanksgiving, while the rich banquet with its music and harlots ends in drunkenness and shame.
6. 1.6Chrysostom ends Homily 1 by contrasting the end of the two tables, here and at Christ's judgment, and urges his hearers to spend everything on almsgiving rather than divide between luxury and charity.
7. 2.1Opening Homily 2, Chrysostom expounds Col 1:9–11: Paul's tactful prayer that the Colossians be filled with knowledge of God's will, his joining of faith and conduct, and his habit of praising before he rebukes.
8. 2.2Chrysostom expounds Col 1:11–15: longsuffering and endurance, thanksgiving for God who made us fit for the lot of the saints, deliverance from the devil's authority, and transfer into the kingdom of the beloved Son.
9. 2.4Chrysostom urges constant remembrance of God's gifts and readiness for death, comparing the present life to a swallows' nest that will fall on the day of judgment, and blames unbelief in judgment on soft living.
10. 2.5Chrysostom rebukes Christians who deny the judgment to excuse their sins, argues that denying judgment denies God's justice and existence, and urges sinners to repent and warn others rather than corrupt them.
11. 2.6Chrysostom answers the excuse of debating with pagans, argues from conscience and from the common belief of Greeks and Jews that there will be a judgment, and contrasts the just doctrine of resurrection with the doctrine of fate.
12. 3.1Opening Homily 3, Chrysostom argues from Col 1:15 that the Son, as image of the invisible God, is exactly like the Father and cannot be a creature.
13. 3.2Chrysostom expounds Col 1:15–20 against those who make the Son a creature: “firstborn” does not mean created, all things were made through him and hang on him, and through the blood of the cross he reconciled earth with heaven and men with angels.
14. 3.4Chrysostom shows how Christ reconciled angels and men, says each believer has a guardian angel, and explains the bishop's repeated greeting “Peace to all” as Christ's own gift, which those who quarrel make an empty form.
15. 3.5Chrysostom ends Homily 3 by arguing that God's grace works through unworthy priests for the people's sake, and that the bishop, as Christ's ambassador, must be heard for the dignity of his office.
16. 4.1Opening Homily 4, Chrysostom expounds Col 1:21–24: Christ reconciled those who had willingly become his enemies, did what the angels could not, and made them holy and irreproachable, provided they remain firm in faith and hope.
17. 4.2Chrysostom explains Col 1:24–25: Paul's sufferings are Christ's own, borne for the church as by a lieutenant taking his general's wounds, and Paul's ministry to the Gentiles is God's stewardship, given at the fitting time.
18. 4.3Answering the pagan question why Christ came so late, Chrysostom argues that success needs no defence of its timing, compares human history to one life growing toward maturity, and describes God's training of Israel in the desert as a school with Moses as teacher.
19. 4.4Chrysostom ends Homily 4 by arguing that the laws of retaliation and the promises made to Israel were suited to a people still like children, so that Christ's higher teaching came at the right time, and urges his hearers to give thanks rather than question God.
20. 5.1Opening Homily 5, Chrysostom expounds Col 1:26–27: the mystery hidden from the ages is God's raising of idol-worshipping Gentiles, all at once and by faith alone, above the angels to share the throne of Christ.
21. 5.2Chrysostom expounds Col 1:27–2:4: Paul admonishes and teaches every man so as to make all perfect in Christ, struggles for those who have never seen him, and wants them knit together in love and fully assured by faith in Christ, in whom all treasures of wisdom are hidden.
22. 5.3Chrysostom praises the Colossians' firm order and faith (Col 2:5) and shows that the truths about God — his being everywhere and nowhere, incorporeal, without beginning, and active without change — cannot be grasped by reasoning but only held by faith.
23. 5.4Chrysostom shows from Jonah, the grain, Elijah, and Enoch that even visible wonders need faith, and explains how God trained his people little by little through types: barren women and Eve's formation foreshadow the Son's birth from the Father and from the Virgin, and Enoch, Elijah, and Jonah foreshadow the resurrection.
24. 5.5Homily 6 opens on Col 2:6–8 (walking rooted in Christ, who alone leads to the Father); a displaced passage then gives the end of Homily 5, listing Old Testament types of the resurrection, providence, baptism, and the giving up of the Son.
25. 6.1Continuing Homily 6, Chrysostom expounds Col 2:8–10: the false teacher creeps in like a thief through empty philosophy and the observance of days, which turn men away from Christ, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells.
26. 6.2Continuing Homily 6, Chrysostom expounds Col 2:9–15: the fullness dwelling in Christ, the circumcision made without hands which is baptism, the handwriting against us torn up on the cross, and the public death by which Christ disgraced the devil.
27. 6.4Chrysostom ends Homily 6 by comparing baptism with the creation and fall of Adam: the baptismal renunciation of Satan is a covenant, not a debt; the candidate is stripped, anointed, formed anew by the Spirit, set in heaven, and joined to Christ's body, beyond the devil's reach.
28. 7.1Opening Homily 7, Chrysostom expounds Col 2:16–22: Paul belittles the observance of feasts, new moons, and sabbaths, which were a shadow, and rebukes the worship of angels and the human ordinances of those who do not hold fast to Christ the head.
29. 7.2Chrysostom expounds Col 2:20–3:4: human ordinances only seem wise and dishonour the body God honoured; believers, dead and risen with Christ, should seek the things above, and their old man was buried in baptism as the Egyptians in the Red Sea.
30. 7.3Chrysostom compares baptism to fire that melts wax and refines gold, then shows that office, luxury, and the honour that wealth brings are dust, and that to be honoured for one's money is a disgrace.
31. 7.4Chrysostom argues that wealth disfigures the soul like dropsy and fills it with monstrous desires, recalls a Persian king's golden plane tree, and rebukes Christian women who make even chamber pots of silver while Christ starves.
32. 7.5Chrysostom ends Homily 7 by threatening to bar from the church those who use silver vessels and gold ornaments, refusing to tolerate luxury for fear people will leave for other sects, and urging his hearers to give to the many poor around the church.
33. 8.1Opening Homily 8, Chrysostom defends his previous rebuke, expounds Col 3:5–10, explains that Paul's call to put to death what is “on the earth” concerns sins committed after baptism, not the body God made, and that the “old man” is the evil will.
34. 8.2Chrysostom expounds Col 3:9–15: the new man is renewed in Christ's image without distinctions of race or rank; believers are to forgive as Christ forgave, bind all virtues with love, and let God's peace umpire their thoughts; and he explains why Paul names sexual immorality first.
35. 8.4Chrysostom explains that the vices of Col 3:5 all point to sexual immorality, which must be put to death like dead flesh, and comments again on Col 3:6–15: the sons of disobedience, putting away anger and abuse, the one royal form of Christ, and bearing with one another.
36. 8.5This section ends Homily 8 (thanksgiving in suffering, against amulets and charms for sick children, and consolation for bereaved parents from Abraham, Jacob, David, and others) and contains all of Homily 9 (Col 3:16–17: lay people should read the Scriptures, teach their children psalms rather than worldly songs, and do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus).
37. 10.1Opening Homily 10, Chrysostom expounds the household rules of Col 3:18–4:1: wives are to be subject and husbands to love without bitterness, so that each makes the other's part easy; children are to obey, fathers not to provoke, and slaves to serve their masters.
38. 10.2Chrysostom expounds Col 3:22–4:2: slaves are to serve sincerely, fearing God who sees, and will be rewarded by him; masters must give what is just and equal; and all are to persevere in prayer with thanksgiving for every kind of benefit, even Gehenna and affliction.
39. 10.3Chrysostom quotes a holy man's prayer of thanksgiving for all God's benefits, then expounds Col 4:3–4: Paul in chains asks not for release but for boldness, and his bonds, far from hindering the gospel, made it spread.
40. 10.4Chrysostom argues that the apostles' lack of learning and Paul's chains made the gospel spread the more, contrasts Socrates' fleeing disciples, and urges women to desire Paul's chains rather than gold necklaces.
41. 10.5Chrysostom ends Homily 10 by urging women to put on Christ instead of gold, to adorn themselves with almsgiving and chastity rather than finery, and to set their daughters an example of modesty.
42. 11.1Opening Homily 11, Chrysostom expounds Col 4:5–10: Christians must give outsiders no needless offence, fighting only for the gospel, speaking graciously and fittingly; and he comments on Tychicus and Onesimus as Paul's trusted messengers.
43. 11.2Chrysostom praises Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus (Col 4:10–11), then returns to Col 4:5–6: Christians should avoid needless hostility with pagans, speak with grace seasoned with salt, and suit their words to each hearer.
44. 11.3Chrysostom contrasts Paul's courtesy at Athens with his rebuke of Elymas, comments on Onesimus and the Jewish fellow workers (Col 4:9–11), and urges his hearers to share in others' sufferings and successes instead of envying them.
45. 11.4Chrysostom ends Homily 11 by arguing that one who rejoices in a brother's success shares in it and earns double crowns, while the envious man fights against God and the church, and punishes only himself.
46. 12.1Opening Homily 12, Chrysostom runs through Col 4:12–18: Epaphras's striving in prayer for the Colossians, Luke and Demas, Nymphas's house church, the exchange of letters with Laodicea, the charge to Archippus, and Paul's signature and bonds.
47. 12.2Chrysostom explains Paul's praise of Epaphras and his charge to Archippus (Col 4:12–17), then turns “Remember my bonds” into an exhortation against luxury, vanity, and anger, and praises Paul's tears as more beautiful than any face and as watering the church.
48. 12.4Chrysostom urges tears only for sin, then attacks the hiring of harlots, dancers, and effeminate performers for weddings, and explains marriage as a mystery and type of Christ and the church, in which husband and wife become one flesh, joined above all in their child.
49. 12.6Chrysostom defends marriage as honourable and a mystery of Christ and the church against those who are ashamed of it, blames the shame on the indecency of wedding feasts, and invites his hearers to have Christ at their weddings instead of pipers and dancers.
50. 12.7Chrysostom ends the homilies on Colossians by describing a Christian wedding: choose a godly husband of equal or lower means, pray and entrust the choice to God, invite decent guests and the poor instead of performers, and adorn the bride with modesty instead of gold.