The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 133

m11nda11e. "After the rudiments of the \l'Or!d." \Vhat was handed down had no high gcnPsis. YC'ry crudo were the first attempts to solve tho riddlo of the universe. Empcdocles taught that all things were formed out of the four elements fire air C'nrth, _an? water, by a process of mingling a_nd of _separation, set in moti~n by th~ two pn_nc1ples of love and hato. The postulation of mtermediato agents in a descend- mg series down to one who could crente matter. was v~rr rudimentary. Tho apostle was sorry that such meagre and earth-born plulosoph1zrngs should bo palmed upon men as all that was needed to make them perfect. The standard of condemnation. "And not nfter Christ." \Vhat is tradition when we lmve Christ to give form to our !hought.s? What are the rudiments of the world (all that earth can produce of a rhilosophy) when we haYo the perfect revelation from heaven? . II. '1';1ffi TnUE r~ILO~OPHY. There are two cardinal points. (1) The fulness of God 1n Christ. "For m him dwelle!h all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." By the ple:roma of the Godhead we are to understand the totality of the Divine attributes the sum of the Divine perfections. We are to think of the pleroma as residing first in God and then in Christ (just as we think first of Father and then of Son first of original and then of copy). The pleroma resides iu the Second Person necess;rily and eternally, but nineteen hundred years ago (such is our creed) it began to reside in him bodily wise, that is to say, a connection was mysteriously formed between the pleroma in him and (what was far removed) a human body. In the body he took to himself he tabernncled on earth, and not only so, but in it now glorified he permanently resides (such is the force of the Greek word), that is to say, the time will never come when there will be a separation of the pleroma in him from our humanity. Such is the apostolic teaching, but on it reverence forbids that we should dwell. (2) ThefulneSB of Christ in us. "And in him ye are made full." It is an advantage in the Revised translation that "full" is carried forward from the preceding thought (not "fulness" and then "complete," when the word is the same). The pleroma in Christ is com- municated to us. Out of his pleroma have all we received. Christians collectively are called the pleroma of Christ. This is 110 mere refinement of thought. The comfort of it is that Christ in his redemptive work, in the fulness of his atoning merits, has made it possible for us to have more than mere beginnings or husks. There must be allowance for difference of essence, but, allowance being made for that, then all that is in Christ can be communicated to us. We can think out the Divine thought. We can be under the irnpuls:i of the Divine love. We can have strength to perform the Divine purpose. We cau come out into the Divine liberty. 1t is only Christ actually working in us that can remove all moral impediments, and educe to the full the God-given tendencies of our being. .And, therefore, the truest philosophy is to preserve a state of openness towards him. This philosophy is all-sufficient. I. It enables us to dispense with what intermediate agents may be supposed to do for us. "Who is the Head of all principality and power." Christ is not only placed over all that can be called principality and power, but he is the Source of all the vital force that belongs to them. What of the pleroma may be dispersed, fragmentary in them, is undis- persed, unbroken in him. Thero is no need, therefore, of supplementing what he can supply. 2. It enables us to dispr.nse with circumcision. It would seem that in the false philosophy with which the Church at Colossro was threatened, there was e. Jude.istic as well as a mystic element. The combination of the two was called Essenism. (1) Circumcised with Christ in /;is circumcision. "In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of tbe flesh, in the circumcision of Christ." They bad no need of the circumcision made with hands (the material circumcision); they had been circumcised with e. circumcision not made with hands (a spiritual circumcision). 'l'hey had got the inward reality corresponding to the outward rite. This is presented here as the putting off of the Lody of the flesh. There was the putting off as of e. garment. 'fhe word in the ori"inal, being intensive, points to a complete putting off. The putting off applied to the body as a whole. 'fhe body of the flesh points to our old impure condition (in which the flesh is the dominating principle).• It could only be ideally thl\t we were thus circumcised, for there is still actual impurity in our condition that needs to be put off. When in the past a.re we to understand this circumcision as timed? 'l'he general opiuio'.I is that we are to take the time from the baptism referred to in the noxt verse. OU, U, 1-23.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 127