The life and work of St. Paul

THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 617
reconciled 1 in the body of His flesh by death, to present yourselves holy and unblemished
and blameless before Him, if, that is, ye abide by the faith, founded and
firm, and not being ever shifted from the hope of the Gospel which ye heard, -which
was proclaimed throughout this sublunary world of which I became I, Paul a
minister." 8
The immense grandeur of this revelation, and the thought that it should
have been entrusted to his ministry, at once exalts and humiliates him and
;
he 3
characteristically continues :
" Now I rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and supplement the deficiencies
of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh on behalf of His body, which is the Church, 4
of which I became a minister according to the stewardship of God granted to me
5
to you-ward, to develop fully the word of God, the mystery which has lain hidden
from the ages and the generations, but is now manifested to His saints, to whom
God willed to make known what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among
the Gentiles, which is mystery Christ in you the hope of glory whom we "
;
preach
not to chosen mystae, not with intellectual exclusiveness, not with esoteric reserves,
but absolutely and "
universally warning every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom, that we may present every man '
perfect '
in Christ. 6 For which end also I
toil, contending according to His energy, which works in me in power.?
" For I wish you to know how severe a contest 8 I have on behalf of you, and
those in Laodicea, and all who have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts
may be confirmed, they being compacted 9 in love, and so brought to all wealth of
the full assurance of intelligence, unto the full knowledge of that mystery of God,
10 which is Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hid
treasures," yet, as the whole passage implies, hidden no longer, but now brought
to light." "This I say" i.e., I tell you of this possibility of full knowledge for
you all, of this perfect yet open secret of wisdom in Christ
"
that no man may
sophisticate you by plausibility of speech. For even though personally absent, yet
in my spirit I am with you, rejoicing in and observing your military array, and the
solid front of your faith in Christ. As, then, ye received the ChristJesus the
1 Ver. 21, o7roic}T (B). The awo, as in an-oXa/m/Sawu- vio8e (Gal. Iv. 5) and
iiroKaTaoroo-w, points to the restoration of a lost condition.
2
i. 1523. At ver. 20 begins a sketch of Christ's work, first generally (20), then
specially to the Colossians (21 23).
3 Of. Eph. iii. 29 ; 1 Tim. i. 11.
4
TO. ixrrtmtiMra.. These latter words throw light on the former. Christ's sacrifice is,
of course, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins
of the whole world," and the sufferings of saints cannot, therefore, be vicarious. But
they can be ministrative, and useful nay, even requisite for the continuance of Christ's
work on earth and in that sense St. ; Paul, and every "partaker of Christ's sufferings "
(2 Cor. i. 7 Phil. iii.
; 10) can " personally supplement in Christ's stead (avra.va.ir\iipC,)
what ia lacking of Christ's afflictions on behalf of His body, the Church." Steiger,
Maurice, Huth, &c., read "the sufferings of the Christ in my flesh "
; but there can be
no xpi