Colossians 3:1

COL. 3

Findlay's outline of this section of the epistle is:

a. The Colossians urged to maintain a lofty spiritual life (Colossians 3:1-4).

b. They were to put off old vices (Colossians 3:5-8).

100They were to put on new Christian virtues (Colossians 3:9-14).

d. The sovereignty of Christ was to rule them (Colossians 3:15-17).

e. Instructions regarding reciprocal relationships (Colossians 3:18-4:1).

1. As wives and husbands (Colossians 3:18-20).

2. As parents and children (Colossians 3:21).

3. As servants and masters (Colossians 3:22-4:1).[1]

The hortatory section, or "practical teachings," as usual in Paul's letters, comes after the doctrinal part of the letter; a number of deductions from this fact are important:

(1) It is not ethics which produces doctrine, but the doctrine which produces ethics, as Peake said: "The ethical exhortation has its basis in the dogmatic exposition already given."[2] All Christian morality, ethics and philosophy are grounded in the historical fact of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) In putting the doctrine first, Paul followed the usual pattern visible in the New Testament.

The New Testament everywhere insists upon true doctrine ... the whole tendency (today) is to discourage talk about doctrine and to urge that we work together, etc. ... but the fact is that there is no unity apart from truth and doctrine; and it is departure from this that causes division and breaks unity.[3]

From this, the deduction follows that all of the sacred writers stressed doctrine, and on doctrine built the appeal for better conduct.

The apostle now develops his ethical teaching, erecting, as is his custom, his moral superstructure upon a solid doctrinal foundation.[4]

(3) Then, should not doctrine be re-emphasized today? It may be well to note the words of Wagner and Johnson who developed an analysis of why some churches grow and others do not; and they determined that:

What really determines growth is the intensity of belief that any group has in the particular doctrine it holds ... What we have seen occurring from the time of Constantine in the fourth century has been a general watering down of our belief in our views of salvation and of the church.[5]

Christ strongly emphasized the true doctrine, declaring that those who taught "as their doctrines the precepts of men" were worshipping God in vain (Matthew 15:9). Of course, Paul was one with the Holy Saviour in the strong and emphatic teaching regarding the doctrine.

PAUL'S TEACHING ON DOCTRINE

The trouble Paul sought to correct with this very letter was that of the Colossians following human doctrine (Colossians 2:22). The unstable and ineffective Christians at Ephesus Paul identified as those "carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14). Paul classified everything that was "contrary to sound doctrine" as being sinful in the same degree as fornication, falsehood and murder (1 Timothy 1:10). "The words of faith and of good doctrine" were to be proclaimed by Timothy in order for him to be "a good minister of Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 4:6). Paul commanded him to give heed and attendance to "doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:13,16), and ordered him to hold in "double honor" those who were laboring "in the word and in the teaching (doctrine)" (1 Timothy 5:17).

Furthermore, the apostasy itself was to come about through the sins of the churches that "could not endure the sound doctrine," but who would cater to their "itching ears" by supplying false teachers (2 Timothy 4:3). All these instructions to Timothy were, in essence, repeated to Titus, where Paul commanded him to "speak the things which befit the sound doctrine," and where all faith and honesty were seen primarily as an "adornment of the doctrine of God" (Titus 2:1,10).

Therefore, either churches or ministers who neglect to teach the "sound doctrine" of the word of God, or seek to downgrade it in any way, are guilty of forsaking the "faith once for all delivered to the saints."

[1] G. G. Findlay, Colossians in The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 19 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 147.

[2] A. S. Peake, Expositor's Greek Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 536.

[3] D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, The Basis of Christian Unity (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), p. 50.

[4] Ernest G. Ashby, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 488.

[5] C. Peter Wagner and Arthur Johnston, "A Pragmatic Concern for Church Growth," in Christianity Today, Vol. 21, No. 7 (January 7,1977), p. 14 (382).

If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)

As Neilson said, "If then ye were raised parallels if ye died with Christ in Colossians 2:22.[6] Both of course, refer to Christian baptism.

Macknight affirmed that the meaning here is, "Since then ye have been raised with Christ in baptism.[7] Barclay also elaborated it thus:

The point Paul is making here is this. In baptism the Christian dies and rises again. As the waters close over him, it is as if he was buried in death; as he emerges from the waters, it is like being resurrected to a new life.[8] ... We have seen repeatedly that the early Christians regarded baptism as a dying and rising again. When a man was buried, the Greeks commonly spoke of him as being hidden in the earth; but the Christian had died a spiritual death in baptism, and he is not hidden in the earth but hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3).[9]

HOW ONE DIES WITH CHRIST IN BAPTISM

There are two different aspects of one's death with Christ in baptism, these being: (1) the firm and irrevocable resolution and intention of renouncing sin forever (this is the spiritual aspect of it), very appropriately referred to as dying with Christ, since as far as the Christian is concerned, his body (in his intention) is no more to be given over to the indulgence of fleshly lusts and sins, any more than if he had physically died, and (2) the legal aspect of dying in the person of Christ. Christ died on Calvary; therefore, all who are in Christ are also said to have died "in him." Every Christian can say, "I have already paid the penalty of sin, which is death; for I died on the cross in the Person of my Redeemer," this being exactly parallel to Paul's statement that we are "dead to the Law by the body of Christ" (Romans 7:4).

It should be observed in this connection that one's having died with Christ unto sin has reference only to the imperative and all-important change of the will (repentance) when one becomes a Christian. There is nothing here of God's taking away all temptations. Even Christ was tempted in all points like as we are tempted. This death to sin is suggested by the burial of the convert in the act of baptism. Despite the fact of baptism's nowhere being called a "figure" or "outward sign" of anything in the New Testament, it is called "that form of doctrine" which must be obeyed by those seeking eternal life. In that frame of reference, it is to be understood, therefore, as a form of death, burial and resurrection of Christ (that is, of the gospel), and also of the convert's death to sin, burial in baptism, and being raised to walk in the newness of life in Christ.

But is not "the form" as applied to baptism in Romans 6:17 the same as "figure," etc.? No indeed; it is an expression which is used of Christ being "in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6), and that usage of it denotes the utmost reality and substance, making baptism to be a reality of the gospel, in fact, the gospel itself that must be obeyed by people seeking salvation. See more on this in my Commentary on Romans, Romans 6:17ff. The truth is that "obeying the gospel," as used in the New Testament, invariably means believing and being baptized, there being no other way whatever in which the "good news" could be obeyed.

If ye then were raised together with Christ ... Barry said the reference here is "evidently to baptism.[10] Findlay likewise referred it to "the gate of baptism";[11] and Guthrie agreed that here there is an allusion "to baptism."[12]

Seek ye the things that are above ...

Seek ... is stressed by many as a word indicating the most careful and persistent pursuit of the goal indicated.

The things that are above ... The thought of Christ and heaven being above and the sinful things of earth being below is misleading when understood merely in the sense of altitude. "The things above" are rather the things of higher importance, more exalted principles, and spiritual rather than carnal. As Ellis reminded us, "The words above and below in the writings of Paul and of John do not primarily indicate spatial contrasts."[13]

There is a dramatic fourfold reference to "Christ" in these first four verses; and Barry stated that "The name, four times repeated, has in all cases the article prefixed to it. Evidently it is used emphatically to refer to our Lord as our Mediator - our Prophet, Priest and King."[14]

[6] John B. Nielson, Colossians in Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. IX (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1965), p. 410.

[7] James Macknight, Apostolical Epistles with Commentary, Vol. III (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1969), p. 549.

[8] William Barclay, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975), p. 147.

[9] Ibid., p. 148.

[10] Alfred Barry, Ellicott's Commentary on the Holy Bible, Vol. III, Philippians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 111.

[11] G. G. Findlay, op. cit., p. 147.

[12] Donald Guthrie, New Bible Commentary, Revised (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), p. 1148.

[13] E. Earle Ellis, Wycliffe New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 795.

[14] Alfred Barry, op. cit., p. 112.