The Pulpit Commentary — Colossians — Section 189

future enjoyment. And experience shows that. the one it\ol is less rea<lily ,lethronecl than the other. The next thought (which also follows in Ephesians) is that for these sins God deals with men. "]'or which thingi sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." They disobey, for the first commandment is "Thou shalt havo no other gods before me." They transgress the laws of the body; they transgress also the laws of the spiritual nature. 'l'hey not only disobey, but they persist in courses of disobedience. They are the sons of duobedience. They are as though they had disobedience as their father; so vile is their parentage. They refuse the gospel, by which they could be delivered from their evil courses. Aud therefore it is that the wrath of God cometh upon them. It cometh upon them incipiently now. It cometh upon them in the shape of a. materializing of the spirit. It cometh upon them in the shape of inward dispeace. It cometh upon them in the shape of dis- tui·bance from without (bodily malady, loss of tstate, loss of respect, complications). God bas many ways of showing his displeasure against men for these sins even now, and his displeasure will yet be more decidedly manifested, The next thow;ht (which also follows, though not under the same figure, i II Ephesians) is that tliey were. to remember their former participation in these sins. "In the which ye also walked aforetime, when ye lived in these things." In heathenism they lived in an atmosphere which was pollution. And then they participated in these sins. If in this fact there was danger of their being decoyed hack to their former ways under false representations, on the other hand there was strength to be got from realizing how much they had benefited by the change from heathenism to Christianity. ln their present joys aucl habits (for which they were indebted to Christ) they had wherewith to oppose tempta- tions from their past. II. THESE AND OTHER SINS TO BE PUT Aw AY. " But now put ye also [as well as others rescued from heathenism] away all these." There seems to be a retrospective as well as a prospective reference in the injunction. 'l'he other sins are in two classes. 1. Sins of temper. "Anger, wrath, malice." The first describes a more settled, tho second a more eruptive, state of onr feeling against others. They are to be conclemned (l) when they are accompanied with want of self-possession; (2) when they are accompanied with want of reasonable ground; (3) when they are accompaniecl with malice or anything like delight in the evil condition of others. When these elements are wanting, they are not to be condemned, but need to be carefully watched. 2. ,',ins of speech. "Railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth." Railing is speaking nbnsively (it may not be clamorously) against others. This is to be condemned when it is accompanied with foulness of speech (shameful speaking). The mouth should not be prostituted to such uses, "Lie not one to another." \Ve are not even to lie to ourselves. We are not to make ourselves believe that we a.re other (even wor8e) than we really are. \Ve are not to see things other than they really a.re. We are not to lie to others. \Ve are not to make it appear to them that we are other than we really arc. \Ve ore not to make them out to be other ( even better) than they re.lily are. \Vo are not to stnte things to be other than they really a.re. Wo are to put away all false- hood from our intercourse with others. Reason given for pulling away the last a11d all the sins that have been named. "Seeing that ye have put off the oltl ma.u with his doings." Our ol,\ condiLion is personified as "the ol<l. man." His doings have been pointed to, In baptism we put off the old man with his doings. We must not be o.s though unregenerate. We must have nothing to do with practices the time of which is past. 111. Tm: PUTTING ON rn THE NEW LIFE. "A.nd have put on the new man." Our recent condition is personified as "I.he new mo.n." There is u prefacing with two important stateme11ts. l. There u a distinctly defined renew,1l constantly going on. " Which is being renewed uuto knowledge after t.he imnge of him that created him." It may be said that Christ perfected the now condition fur us. As appropriated by us, it is in the way of a constant renewal of our life. A.s in a tree, so with us, with repeated cndoavours there ever results fresh accession of life. 'l'he eud of the renewal is !Jore said to be knowledge, 'rhe false teachers claimed wisuom, claimed by their philosophy to give the power to know. The apostle shows how knowledge was to be come to. Ho thinks of it as the terminus of a long process of renewal. It is the wortl which means tlwrough knowle,lgo, i.e. of God nnd redotnption. There is thus accordance  186 THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE COLOSSIANS. [011, III, l-2G. ------. ---------------------------- with the grcnt stntc~ent, "And this. is lire eternal, that they should know thee the onl_Y true God, and h11u whom thon didst send, even Jesus Christ." There is nothino foreign to our nature in this renewal. God made us in his owu imarre, He <lcsi.,ned a renewal to go forward in us nccording to a God-liko type. Ho designed in° our renewal that we should come to the thorough knowledge of himself. And this is what redemption effects for us. 2. In respect of this renewal earthly distinctions are of no imp,•·tance. "Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircum- ci~ion, bnrbnrian, Scythian, bondman, freeman : but Christ is all, and in all." There is a parallel passage in Gal. iii, 28. The first distinction there (" neither Jew nor Greek") may be said to cover the first three distinctions here, Distinction is denied as to nationality(" Greek and Jew"). Distinction is denied as to religious position ("circum- cision and nncircumcision "). Distinction is denied as to culture; and here the apostle docs not take the extremes of culture; but more strikingly takes those who to the cultured Greeks were barbarians, and to them opposes the Scythians who were barbarians to the barbarians. Distinction is denied as to social sto.tus (" bond man, freeman"), which distinction had significance in the early Christian Churches, from the number of slaves connected with them, and had special significance in the Colossio.n Church, from the conversion of a Colossian slave still with the apostle at Rome. There is not, and cannot be, any of these distiuctions. In Galatians the apostle teaches that there are no distinctions on the ground of our sonship in Christ. Here he teaches that there are no distinctions (in keeping with the thought of the pre-eminence of Christ) on the ground of Christ being all o.nd in all in the great renewal. (l) Christ is all in the renewed. The great need of our nature is to be renewed, o.nd Uhrist fully meets that need. He gives the whole contents and form to our renewal. United to Christ by faith, we become receptacles of Christ. 'Ihe pleroma dwells in him, and that pleroma floods our being with light, with strengtb, with purity, with all things. Renewed only from Christ, our life manifests itself only in Christio.n forms. (2) Ghrist is all in all the renewed. Men were broken up into classes, castes. The Jew drew back from the uncircumcised; the Greek despised the barbo.rian; the barbarian despised the Scytbian ; the freeman despised the bondman. The apostle points to the fact that the great renewal takes place in all alike. Alike in being creo.ted in the image of God, they are also alike in tbe renewal tho.t takes place on that ground o.nd according to tho.t fact. The poor Scythian can be filled full and beautified in the possession of Christ as well as the Greek, the bondman as well as the freeman. Jn view of this essential identity, all these earthly distinctions become of no account.-R. F.