Colossians 2:19 - Exposition

And not holding fast the Head ( Colossians 2:6 , Colossians 2:8 ; Colossians 1:15-20 ; Ephesians 1:20-23 ; Philippians 2:9-11 ; Romans 9:5 ; Romans 14:9 ; 1 Corinthians 8:6 ; Revelations 19:16). In the last verse the errorist was judged "out of his own mouth," and the intrinsic hollowness of his pretensions was exposed. Now" he appears before the judgment seat of Christ," charged with high treason against him, the Lord alike of the kingdoms of nature and of grace. So the apostle falls back once more (comp. Colossians 2:10 ) on the foundation laid down in Colossians 1:15-20 , on which his whole polemic rests. Both in creation and redemption, the philosophic Judaists assigned to the angels a role inconsistent with the sovereign mediatorship of Christ (see notes on Colossians 1:10 and Colossians 1:15 ). From whom all the body, through its joinings and bands being supplied and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God ( Colossians 1:18 ; Ephesians 1:22 , Ephesians 1:23 ; Ephesians 4:15 , Ephesians 4:16 ; John 15:1-6 ; 1 Corinthians 3:6 ). Disloyalty to "the head" works destruction to "the body," which in this case "proceeds from" ("grows out of," ἐξ ... αὒξει ,) its Head, while it depends upon him. Gnosticism from the beginning tended to disintegrate the Church, by the caste feeling ( Colossians 1:28 , note; Colossians 3:11 ) and the sectarian spirit to which it gave birth ( Colossians 1:8 ; Acts 20:30 ). Its vague and subjective doctrines were ready to assume a different form with each new exponent, Here lies the connection between this and the Ephesian letter, the doctrine of the Church following upon and growing out of that of the person of Christ, each being threatened—the latter immediately, the former more remotely—by the rise of the new Judaeo-Christian mystic rationalism. Colossians asserts the "thou in me" of John 17:23 ; Ephesians the corresponding "I in them;" and both the consequent "they made perfect in one" (comp., especially, Ephesians 3:14-21 and — Ephesians 4:7-16 with Colossians 1:15-20 and Colossians 2:9-15 ). (On "body," see note, Colossians 1:18 .) αφαὶ signifies, not "joints "as parts of the bony skeleton, but includes all points of contact and connection in the body; Latin nexus, junetura (see Lightfoot). Bengel and Meyer, following Chrysostom, interpret it as "senses," or "nerves;" but this does not commend itself either lexically or contextually. The συνδεσμοί (comp. Colossians 3:14 ) are the "ligaments," the stronger and more distinct connections that give the bodily framework unity and solidity. So, by the organic cooperation of the whole structure, the body of Christ is furnished with its supplies, enabled to receive and dispense to each member the needed sustenance; and "knit together" (verse 2), drawn into a close and firm unity. "Supplied" indicates a sustenance both required and due. In Colossians 1:6 we read of the increase of the gospel, in Colossians 1:10 of the individual believer, and now of the Church as a body ) Ephesians 2:21 ; Ephesians 4:16 ). "The increase of God" is that which God bestows ( 1 Corinthians 3:6 ), as it proceeds "from Christ" ( ἐξ οὗ : Ephesians 4:10 ; Colossians 3:11 ; John 1:16 ), in whom is "the fulness of the Godhead" ( Ephesians 4:9 : comp. Ephesians 1:23 and — Ephesians 3:17-19 ). In Ephesians 4:16 the same idea is expressed in almost the same terms. There, however, the growth appears as proper to the body, resulting from its very constitution; here, as a bestowment of God, dependent, therefore, upon Christ, and ceasing if the Church ceases to hold fast to him.