§ 6. COLOSSIANS AND EPTIESIAN!!, With the doctrine of the person of Christ, that of the Ohwrch advances to its completion. For it is "his body, the folness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. i. 23). The Church is the recipient of his fulness, its organic expression and embodiment. The more complete and all-embracing that "fnlness of God" in Christ is seen to be, the grander becomes our con- ception of the Church and her destiny, and of the subordination under which, in God's counsels, all other objects and interests are placed to her perfec- tion; the more sacred and essential her nnity becomes, in our view, as the counterpart of the oneness in which "all things" are "summed np in Christ" (Eph. i. 10). These thoughts, however, the apostle contents himself with indicating here (eh. i. 18; ii. 19; iii. 11, 15); he reserves their full expansion and application for the Ephesian letter. From this point of view, the _general relation of the two Epistles becomes sufficiently clear. Bnt while these Epistles are so intimately connected in thought and in expression,_and in a number of passages are not only parallel but almost identical in content, when more closely examined they betray a striking difference of tone and style. Not a few critics have, on this account, assumed a different authorship. But the difference is, in reality, one of mood and attitude in the same mind-a contrast between two opposite states of mind, such as freqncntly alternate in intense and mobile natures like St. Paul's. Our Epistle is the expression of e. mind anxious and perturbed, strnggling with great spiritual difficulties of a profound and perplexing character, and in regard to which the writer is at a greater disadvantage, as they have come upon a Church at a distance and comparatively unknown to him ( eh. i. 28-ii. 3). The Ephesian letter breathes tbe spirit of 1·est that follows conflict; it is the most tranquil and meditative, the most calmly expansive and John-like of St. Paul's Epistles; and only here and there (Eph. iv. 14; vi. 10-20) does it remind ns of the struggle in which his mind has been engoged, and which he sees to be awaiting the Church in the future. The first is like the mountain stream cleaving its way with swift passage, by deep ravines and sudden, broken turnings, through some baITier thrown across its path. The second is the calm and far- epreacling lake in which its chafed waters find rest, mirroring in their clear depths the eternal heavens above. xii INTRODUCTION TO
§ 7. CoLossuNs AND OTHER NEW TESTAMENT WRtTrNGS. This Epistle is closely allied to that to the Hebrews. Doth bavo the Person and offices of Christ, with his relation to the angels, for their leading theme. The latter treatise furnishes, in several passages, the earliest and best commentary on the Christology and angelology of our Epistle (see notes on eh. i. 15, 18; ii. 9, 10, 15). This, however, is the Epistle of the lord.ship of Christ ; that, of his priesthood. Thi.s is concerned mainly with the pro, sent, with the relations of Christ as Redeemer-King to the existing Church, and to the natnral universe ; that is a review of the past, and beholds in Christ the fulfilment of the spiritual needs and anticipations of the ancient covenant. In eh. iii. 17, indeed, the apostle gives a passing glance in the direction followed by the other Epistle, and furnishes a pregnant hint of which a great part of its argument may be viewed as the development. The doctrine of the Person of Christ also brings this ( and the Ephesians) letter into closer and more sympathetic connection than any other of St. Paul's Epistles with the writings of St. John. Addressing himself to "th~ seven Churches which are in Asia" (including Laodicea), St. John cannot forget that they know "Jesus Christ" as "the Firstborn of the dead," who " loosed us from our sins," and as "the Beginning of the creation of God " (Rev. i. 5, R.V.; iii. 14: comp. eh. i. 14-18). "The Word of God" of the Apocalypse, to the majesty of whose Person all nature pays its tribute, who "sits with the Father on his throne," and as "Prince of the kings of the earth," "comes forth conquering and to conquer," is "Christ Jesus the Lord," whom the Asiatic Churches had "received "-through St. Paul, is the "Image of God," who intended to be "in all things pre-eminent" (Rev. i. 5, 13-18; iii. 21; vi. 2; rix. 11-16: comp. eh. i. 15-18; ii. '1, 10; iii. 1). No passage of St. Paul's approaches so nearly the teaching of St. John's great Epistle as eh. i. 12, 13, where "the inheritance in the light," "the dominion of the darkness,'' and the "translation" by" the Father" into "the kingdom of the Son of his love," appear in a combination intrinsically Pauline, a.nd yet that sounds like an utterance of St. John's before the time. Finally, it was reserved for "the beloved disciple " to pronounce that title of Christ which seems trembling on our apostle's lips in eh. i. 15-18; and yet which he forbears to use (Was it because of the abuse of the term Logos in the Philonia.n philosophy, which confounded the werds with the angels of God in a very mystifying fashion?). St. John has brought all the earlier Christological teaching to a. foCUll, and given it a. completed form in his doctrine of the Incarnate Word, which is the Alpha. and Omega of his Gospel, and indeed of the New Testament itself. The First Epistle of Peter appears to echo, again and again, the language and ideaa of this Epistle (comp. e.g. 1 Pet. i. 4 with eh. i. 5; i. '1, 13, 14 with eh. iii. 4-7; i. 20, 21 with eh. i. 26, 2'1; iii. 15, R.V., with eh. ii. 6 and iv. 6; v. 4 with eh. iii. 4). It contains reminiscences, still more nnmistak- THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. xiii