The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 105

the insi.Jio11s nn,l ,k1<lly nalnre of t~e assault being made upon their faith, of whose rcnl chnractrr they seem to have been httle aware. ,ve expect- therefore in this passage n re~urrence of !-he stra~n of thought pursued in_ tbe prayer'or the fi(st clrn.pter. Vve find a hke prominence given to knowledge, the cluef desideratum of this Church and to the need of a Christianly instnicted understanding as a safeguard acrainst the s~btletles an~ plausibiliti~s of error. At the &'lme time, the view now presented of this object has gamed greatly ID fulncss and depth by the development of the apostlo's araument in the interYcning paragraphs of his letter. 'l'he teaching of this section we m~y summarize in the words of 2 Pet. iii. 18, ns setting forth the nature and the elements of- I. GnOWTJI IN '!'IlE GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF OUR Lonn AND SAVIOUR JESUS OBRIST. (Vers. 2, 3, 6, 7.) 1. St. Paul has spoken of the Church as" the body of Christ" (eh. i. 18, 24), and so he must needs desire that its members may be knit together in love (ver. 19; Eph. iv. 16; 1 Cor. i. 10). Without such union the Church is no lon"er a body, and its members, broken and scattered, become an easy prey to error. The sal,;-ation of individual souls is but half the work of Christ. "He loved the Church and gave himself for her" (Eph. v. 25; Acts xx. 28). He seeks to builcl. the redeemed; regenerated units of mankind as" living stones" into "a holy temple" (Eph. ii. 20-22; l Cor. iii. 16, 17); to integrate them into the "one body" of which he is the Head and his Spirit is the Soul (Eph. iv. 3-6): colllp. sect. 2, II. 4 (homiletics). Of this union, love is tbe bond (eh. iii. 14; Epb. iv. 2; John xiii. 34, 35). In all true and lasting union amongst men some sympathetic affection must exist, either as a basis for the fellowship or as generated by it. Mere identity of beliefs or of interests will never hold men for long together. The heart must love or hate, must be attracted or repelled, in some degree, by every personality around it. And the union of souls in Christ, bein" the most deep and spiritual of any, must be thoroughly pervaded and determined by love. Moreover, the growth of Christian knowledge and the perfecting of personal character depend mnch more largely than we are apt to suppose, in this age of craggcrated individualism and selfish culture-seeking, on the soundness and complete- ness of our Church life, of our Christian social life. To St. Paul's mind the "pcrfoct man" and the perfect Church-the perrcction of the part and of the whole-are reciprocally dependent, and all but identical (Eph. iv. 11-16). 2. But love without lmowlcdge, beat without light, will not suffice. As "faith, being alone, is dead" (Jaa. ii. 17), so love in like condition is blind and easily falls into error. "I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment" (Phil i. 9). The apostle declared that "God willed to make known to his saints the riches of the glory of his mystery" (eh. i. 27); accordingly he desires for them" all ricbes of the full assurance of the understanding," "unto the kuowledge of the mystery" (ver. 2). (1) The former is the 6llbjective counterpart of the latter. The understanding that is enlightened and informed in the truth belonging to the revelation of God in Obrist, that ranges freely, yet reverently, through" the breadth, and length, and height, and depth" of this mystery, and learns to comprel~nd it (Eph. iii. 18), is itself enriched, assured, and satisfied thereby. (2) The object which the mind contemplates, into which it seeks to penetrate ever more deeply, is Christ, the mystery of God. "To know him" is its supreme aspiration (Phil. iii. 10), in which intellectual inquiry is guided by spiritual sympathy and inspired by love (Pbil. iii. 7; John xiv. 21). 'fo know him as an historical Person is something; this knowled;.:c supplies the material and the basis for all other knowledge of Christ (Acts L 36-43). To know him as a living, present Saviour is the essential knowledge, the one thing needful (Phil. iii. 8---ll); it is to" gain Christ, and be found in him." But it is yet more than this to know him as the mystery of God -to discover his secret indwelling in nature and in history; to understand how" to him give all the prophets witness;" to hear the footfall of" the coming One" echoing along the silent chambers and winding corridors of the ages past (cb. i. 21); to find in him the cenlre of all life and law, uniting God and the world, eternity and time (eh. i. 15-17); to behold in" the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," at the same time "the outbeaming of the Fatlz,,,', glory, the very Image of his substance, through whom also he ma<le the worlds, a.nd who upholds all things by the word of his power" (Heb. i. 2, 3), the "l!'irstborn of atl creation," the "Heir of all things." Here is knowledge indeed, and for him who is grounded in it, speculative theories of nature and of God and the mystic dreams of theosophy will have but little charm, 'l'hie OIi. II. 1-23.) 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 09