Colossians 1:29 - Exposition

To which end also I toil hard, striving according to his working ( Colossians 2:1 ; Colossians 4:12 , Colossians 4:13 ; 1 Corinthians 15:10 ; Galatians 4:11 ; Philippians 2:16 ; 1 Timothy 4:10 ; Acts 20:35 ). κοπιῶ , to labour to weariness, often used of manual labour, is a favourite word of St. Paul's ( 1 Corinthians 4:12 ; 2 Corinthians 11:27 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:9 : comp. Ephesians 4:28 ; 1 Thessalonians 1:3 ; John 4:38 ). The figurative use of "striving" ("agonizing," i.e. "contending in the arena") is only Pauline in the New Testament: comp. Colossians 2:1 ; Colossians 4:12 ; Philippians 1:30 ; 1 Corinthians 9:25 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:2 ; 1 Timothy 6:12 ; 2 Timothy 4:7 ; also Luke 22:44 ; in 1 Timothy 4:10 (R.V.) it is again connected with "toil" ( κοπιάω ) . We need not, with Meyer and Ellicott, distinguish inward from outward striving in this word. The apostle's bodily sufferings (verse 21) and his mental anxiety ( Colossians 2:1 ) alike enter into the mighty struggle which he is maintaining on the Church's behalf, and which strains every fibre of his nature to the utmost. "Striving" implies opponents against whom he contends ( Ephesians 6:12 ; 2 Thessalonians 3:2 ; 2 Corinthians 11:26 ); "toiling hard," the painful efforts he has to make. In this toll he is divinely sustained, for he "strives according to his [Christ's: comp. Philippians 4:13 ] working." ενεργεία ("energy," "operative force," "power in action")—another word of St. Paul's vocabulary (frequent also in Aristotle)—is used by him only of supernatural power, "a working of God," "of Satan" ( 2 Thessalonians 2:9 , 2 Thessalonians 2:11 ). Which worketh in me with power ( Philippians 4:11 ; Ephesians 3:16 ; Philippians 2:13 ; Philippians 4:13 ; 2 Corinthians 12:9 , 2 Corinthians 12:10 ). The "energy of Christ" is such that it "effectually works" in the apostle; the same idea is repeated in noun and verb ( Philippians 4:11 , note). The verb is middle in voice, as this "working" is that in which the Divine "energy of Christ" puts itself forth and shows what it can do; see note on "bearing fruit," Philippians 4:6 , and Winer's 'N. T. Grammar,' p. 318 (dynamic middle). So it works unmistakably "in [or, 'with'] power." Never do we find this consciousness of the Divine power dwelling in himself expressed by St. Paul with such joyous confidence as at this period.