Verse 1. "By the will of God." At the very outset, the Apostle asserts his divine commission, in opposition to the false teachers, who usurped the office of preaching without any divine mission or warranty whatever from God. "And Timothy." He mentions him, because known to the Colossians and beloved by them.

Verse 2. The three words, "saints," "faithful," "brethren," denote the same, viz., the Christians of Colossae. They are termed "Saints," because called to a state of sanctity, and also, because they were sanctified in baptism, having been incorporated with Christ and engrafted on him; ''faithful," true sons of the faithful Abraham, and heirs of his promises; "brethren," both of Christ and of one another. Hence, the necessity of brotherly union. These three are distinctive epithets of all Christians. "In Christ Jesus." The word "Jesus," is not in the Greek, but it is found in several MSS.

Verse 3. "Grace," &c., the ordinary Apostolic form of salutation. The words, "and the Lord Jesus Christ," are wanting in many MSS. and rejected by modern critics. They are found in the Armenian and Coptic versions. "We give thanks to God," &c. The Apostle usually commences his Epistles with acts of thanksgiving and prayer. He gives thanks for past favors, and prays for their future continuance. "To God and the Father," τω θεω και πατρι For this St. Chrysostom reads, To God the Father, &c.

Verse 4. "Hearing," ακουσαντες, i.e., having heard, or, after we heard of your faith, &c.

Verse 5. This love of their brethren they exercised in the hope of the future rewards, &c. In the word of the truth of the gospel," i.e., in the word of the most true gospel in which there is contained no falsehood. Hence, it is a laudable thing, to propose the rewards of the life to come, as the motive of our good works.

Verse 6. The words "and growth," are not in the Greek, Their genuineness is now admitted, being found in the ancient MSS., in that used by St. Chrysostom among the rest. "Knew the grace of God in truth," may also mean, have known the grace of God truly and without any admixture of error. In this verse, the Apostle wishes to remove any erroneous impressions, which the false teachers might endeavor to create in their minds, regarding the imperfection of the gospel preached to them, compared with that preached by the Apostles, probably with the view of making their own erroneous doctrine, the complement of the gospel preached to the Colossians.

Verse 7. This gospel which has been preached by the Apostles throughout the earth, has been preached to you without any error by Epaphras. This the Apostle adds, to guard them against the wiles of the false teachers, who endeavored to persuade them, that the gospel preached by Epaphras was defective, and that this defect could be supplied only by admitting the points of doctrine preached by themselves. From this it is commonly inferred, that St. Paul was never at Colossae; otherwise, he should have referred to the doctrines which he himself preached. Hence, he advances the  full weight of his Apostolic authority in support of the truth of the gospel preached to them by Epaphras. Epaphras is generally supposed to have been the first teacher of the Colossians; most probably sent to them by St. Paul while visiting the other cities of Phrygia; they, now, in turn, deputed him to visit the Apostle and minister to him in prison.

Verse 8. This Epaphras, who had been ministering to him in his chains, made known to him their love for him. "In the spirit," means spiritual, unlike the carnal love of the Gnostics; or, it may mean, proceeding from the Holy Ghost.

Verse 9. "With the knowledge of his will," may mean, the general will of God, regarding them, the great rule to which they should conform their lives; or "the will of God," in reference to the mode in which he has been pleased to save man, viz., by the death of his Son, and not by angels. And this extended knowledge they will acquire more perfectly by "spiritual wisdom," i.e., by knowing the mysteries of faith on principles of faith, and "understanding," knowing them by human illustrations; or "wisdom,'" may mean the speculative knowledge of the truths of faith, and "understanding," the knowledge of applying these truths and principles to the practical detail of their lives.

Verse 10. "Worthy of God." In Greek, worthy of the Lord. "In all things pleasing," in Greek, unto all pleasing. He explains in the following words, how they will walk worthy of God and please him; it is by omitting no opportunity of performing good works, which he calls "fruitful," because as the fruits of the earth preserve our temporal life, so do good works ensure our eternal life,

Verse 11. He also prays without ceasing, that fortified with perfect spiritual strength, through the glorious power of God, they would be patient and forbearing in adversity, and even receive it with joy, "according to the power of his glory," i.e., his glorious power. Gods omnipotence is 7iever so glorious as in rendering those omnipotent who hope in him, says St. Bernard. "Patience " is exercised in bearing those afflictions which we cannot revenge; "longanimity," in bearing with those which we can punish. "With joy." The patient endurance of crosses is more magnanimous than the performance of the most heroic actions. ''Romanorum est fortia facere, Christianorum fortia pati,'' out to bear severe trials, not only with patience but with joy, is peculiarly Christian,

Verse 12. "Giving thanks to God the Father." The Greek omits, God. Some persons connects this verse with verse 9, thus : "we cease not praying God to grant you this grace also of thanking him for having called you," &c. According to the connection in the Paraphrase, a new sentence is commenced, and St. Paul having concluded his  petitions in the preceding verse, now thanks God for the benefits here enumerated. "The lot. of the saints," του κληρου των αγιων. Eternal life is called a "lot," to express its gratuitousness, and the absence of strict claim on our part signified by the absence of a claim on the part of those who gain a thing by casting lots. And though we merit eternal life; still, it is primarily founded on grace. In crowning our merits, he only crowns his own gifts.—St. Augustine. "In light." The light of faith here, or the light of glory hereafter, by which we shall sec God, face to face. " It may, however, denote both, as in Paraphrase.

Verse 13. " Darkness," taken in a moral sense in SS. Scripture, denotes evil; hence, it means here, the power of the devil, the prince of darkness. " The Son of his love," a Hebraism, for his most beloved Son.

Verse 14. In the following verses the Apostle claims for Christ, the titles of Creator and Redeemer, the two grand prerogatives of which the Simonians attempted to deprive him, and which they wished to transfer to angels. In this verse, he claims for Him the title of Redeemer, upon which he dilates more fully at verse 20—after claiming for him the title of Creator in the intervening verses, 16, 17, 18, 19. The words "through his blood," are not in the Rhemish Version, made from the Sixtine Edition of the Vulgate, nor in the Codex Vaticanus, nor in MSS. or Versions generally.

Verse 15. Before asserting that he is Creator, the Apostle first claims for Christ the supreme attribute of Divinity, and the eternal Sonship of God. Others say, that the object of the Apostle in this verse is, to show the great benefits of Redemption from the exalted nature of the person by whom it was effected. Christ is the perfect delineation of that invisible God whom no one ever saw, and exhibits the perfect image which the person possessing the nature of God could alone exhibit. He was begotten of God by an eternal generation ; hence, as far anterior to the EONS of the Gnostics in time, as he is superior to them in causality, which latter is shown in the following verse.

Verse 16. In this verse is refuted the false doctrine of the Gnostics, who asserted that this material visible world was created by the ministry of angels. " Through him and in him." In Greek, unto him, i.e., unto his glory.

Verse 17. In this verse, the Apostle refers to the Divine attribute of Providence, whereby all created things are preserved. From this and the preceding verses, it is clear, that the " image," εικων, referred to in verse 15, must regard the substantial image of God, and the possession of the divine nature ; since of God only could it be said that all things were created " by him," and " in him," or unto him, as in the Greek, i.e., for his glory, as also that by his providence all things subsist and are preserved. And it was this God born of the Father before all ages, begotten by eternal generation—his substantial image, by whom all things were made and are still preserved—that submitted to the ignominious tortures of the cross, for what?—to make atonement for the sins of his own creatures—the sins by which he himself was offended. He, though God, submits to tortures, which he could not merit, to free us, worms of earth, from the eternal tortures of the damned which we justly deserved. What excessive love ! Sic amantem quis non radamaret.

Verse 18. He now treats of him, as man; as such, he is the head of his mystical body, the Church—towards her, he exercises all the duties, which the relation of head imposes on him, governing and vivifying her by the continual influx of his graces. He is "the beginning," which appears from the Greek, ος εστιν αρχη, to refer to the words immediately following, viz., "the first born from the dead." Hence, it means, "he is the principle and author of the resurrection."

Verse 19. "All fullness," ie., all perfection of wisdom, grace, power, befitting him, as head of the Church. He has the fullness, not only of grace, but of divinity. "Should dwell," perpetually, inseparably, and essentially. All grace befitting him as head, dwelt in him in the sense already explained, in order that from the head it would descend to the members, and that each might derive from him, as source, the graces necessary for his state and place in the body. The Greek word for " fullness," πληρωμα, had a special significance, in the false system of the Gnostics.

Verse 20. The Apostle again refers in this verse to the other great prerogative of Christ. viz., that of Redeemer, to which he alluded before (verse 4). "The things on earth, and the things in heaven." He reconciled men and angels, and united them, hitherto so far dissevered from each other, under one common headship, having destroyed, by the blood which he shed on the cross, the chiefest obstacle to this union, viz., sin.

Verse 21. He now in a special manner applies to the Colossians what he had spoken generally in reference to all. They were aliens to the divine promises and benefits, and enemies to God in their minds, by their own wills, which was shown by their bad works, and their wicked lives.

Verse 22. "In the body of his flesh," not in his mystical body. Hence, their reconciliation was not effected by angels, as the Gnostics affirmed; but by the death of Christ endured  in his body of flesh; or, natural body. These words clearly refute the class of early heretics who asserted that Christ assumed not a real but a fantastical body,

Verse 23. He will exhibit them as holy and irreproachable, provided they hold to the faith, and persevere in the hope of heavenly blessings, promised to them by the gospel preached throughout the world. He adds this, probably, in order to disprove the calumnious charge which the false teachers made against Epaphras, whose gospel they asserted to be different from that preached by the Apostles. St. Paul, in character of Apostle, and with the full weight of Apostolic authority, asserts, in refutation of this calumny, that the gospel preached by Epaphras, and by the Apostles all over the earth, perfectly coincided.

Verse 24. "And fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ." In this, it is by no means implied, that anything was wanting to the sufferings of Christ, as a sufficient atonement. This would be heretical; for, Christ made not only a sufficient, but also a superabundant atonement. But although Christ did this, and would even wish to submit to every kind of suffering, necessary for the formation and perfection of his Church: still, it was the will of God, that to his Apostles and the ministers of the gospel he would leave much to be endured for his Church, and that in his own place, as the Greek for " fulfill," ανταναπληρω, implies. So that " wanting," υστερηματα, shortcomings), does not regard "the sufferings of Christ," but wanting on the part of St. Paul to be endured for the Church. He, then, rejoices in having to undergo what was wanting to himself, or, on his own part, of the sufferings he was to have undergone for the Church, in quality of minister of Christ. Others, by "the sufferings of Christ," understand the sufferings which St. Paul himself underwent. These he calls "the sufferings of Christ," because Christ regards the sufferings of his members as his own, since they are parts of his mystical body. It was in this sense, he said to Saul, when persecuting his followers: "Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts, 11:24). Hence, as Christ, while here on earth, suffered in his natural body; so, now in heaven will he suffer in his mystical body, in order to apply to us the fruits of his passion. In this interpretation, "the sufferings of Christ,'" mean the sufferings which Christ endures in the members of his mystical body. This latter is the common interpretation; the former, nevertheless, appears the more probable.

Verse 25. He is constituted a minister of the Church by the wise distribution of the great Father of the family, who has allotted to him the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, so as to fulfill the promise of God, &c. —See Paraphrase. Others, by "fulfilling the word of God," πληρωσαι τον λογον του θεου, understand, that he was appointed to preach the word of God fully, so as that there would be no nation left, to which the gospel would not be preached. This interpretation accords well with what follows.