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Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5,8-10

We have been reading from the Old Testament for the past nine weeks.  We began with the 12th chapter of the book of Genesis and went through selected passages from each of the first eight books of the Bible in order: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Ruth.

Today we go back to the New Testament and we begin with readings from the first letter of Paul to the Christians of Thessalonica, in Macedonia, northern Greece.  The letters of Paul (and those attributed to him) are not presented in our New Testament in the order in which they were written.  They have been listed according to their length, so the letter to the Romans, being the longest, is placed first and the short letter to Philemon is last.

The first letter to the Thessalonians, although well down the list, is actually the earliest letter of Paul’s that we have.  It seems to have been written from the city of Corinth, in Achaia, in southern Greece.  It was written about the year 51 AD, i.e. just a little over 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  This makes it also the earliest of the 27 books of the whole New Testament.  It was written, as were all the Pauline letters, well before the first gospel.  This makes it a work of considerable significance. Twenty years, in many ways, was a much shorter period in those days than now because society changed much more slowly and, in a 20-year period, would hardly have changed at all. Nevertheless, as we read through this letter we see how well developed the Christian message already is. 

The ideas contained here were, for the Christians who read them, part of the Gospel message, i.e. the ‘Good News’ about God which came to us through Jesus Christ. Note that Paul uses the word “gospel” (euangelion, meaning good news) in today’s passage, although Mark, Matthew, Luke and John—as we know them—would not begin to appear for another 20 years.

The New International Version Study Bible gives this introduction to the city of Thessalonica:

Thessalonica was a bustling seaport city at the head of the Thermaic Gulf.  It was an important communication and trade centre, located at the junction of the great Egnatian Way and the road leading north to the Danube.  Its population numbered about 200,000, making it the largest city in Macedonia.  It was also the capital of its province.  The background of the Thessalonian church is found in Acts 17:1-9.  Since Paul began his ministry there in the Jewish synagogue, it is reasonable to assume that the new church included some Jews.  However, 1:9-10 and Acts 17:4 seem to indicate that the church was largely Gentile in membership…Paul’s purpose in writing this letter was to encourage the new converts in their trials (3:3-5), to give instruction concerning godly living (4:1-8), to urge some not to neglect daily work (4:11-12) and to give assurance concerning the future of believers who die before Christ returns…the subject of eschatology seems to be predominant in both Thessalonian letters.  Every chapter of 1 Thessalonians ends with a reference to the Second Coming of Christ, with chapter 4 giving it major consideration…The two letters are often designated as the eschatological letters of Paul. (edited)

Today’s reading is summarised by the New American Bible as follows:

“Paul expresses his satisfaction that the three principal Christian characteristics—faith, hope and love—are at work in the Thessalonian community. Unhesitatingly, he places its members among those specially beloved and chosen by God.  He recalls that his preaching of the Gospel to them was not received as a mere intellectual exercise, but had made a strong actual impact on their lives which not even the opposition of unbelievers could dispel.  Their faith has been an inspiration to Christians elsewhere, who have been impressed especially by the Thessalonians’ complete abandonment of idolatry for the worship of the true God, and by their profound orientation toward the Second Coming of Jesus.”

The letter begins, as usual, with greetings from Paul—together with Silvanus and Timothy—to the local Christians for whom he is writing.  He assures the Thessalonians that they are constantly in his prayers and those of his companions. There then comes a typical Pauline blessing:

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

In today’s reading the very core of Christianity is expressed.  We see the centrality of the Trinitarian relationship between the Father and Christ and the Spirit, as well as the vital elements of faith, hope and love.  The previous verse describing the triad of faith, hope and love is found frequently throughout the New Testament. As such:

• Real faith results in action:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works?…faith without works is also dead. (James 2:14,26)

• Christian hope is not mere wishful thinking, but firm confidence in Jesus Christ and his promises of a life that never ends.

I am the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6)

• Unsparing love imitates that of Jesus, who said that the greatest love anyone could show was to give one’s life for one’s friends.

For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

He addresses them as “brothers and sisters beloved by God”.  They are all united to each other as children of one Father and brothers and sisters of his Son. 

The term ‘brothers’ is used by Paul 28 times in the two Thessalonian letters. “The gospel”, that is, the gospel proclaimed by Paul, Silas and Timothy, is a gospel they themselves had received by faith and passed on.  It ultimately comes from God the Father and then through Christ to his followers and beyond.  It is not mere hollow-sounding words.  It is filled with power and, once assimilated, can have a transforming effect on one’s whole life. 

This was its effect on the Thessalonian Christians. And anyone who proclaims the Christian message through the words of Scripture knows that there is a power there that goes far beyond any human eloquence.

…you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.

The example of Paul’s own life and that of his companions was a kind of living gospel, which also had its influence on them. They lived this life, not to draw attention to themselves, but to lead the Christians to the following of Jesus’ Way:

…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
(Matt 5:16)

Paul then congratulates the Thessalonians on the quality of their faith whose reputation has spread far and wide not only to Macedonia, of which Thessalonica is the capital, and to Achaia in the south where Corinth was situated, but everywhere:

…For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you…

So effective has been their influence that Paul has hardly to speak about it himself.

One reason why the Thessalonian example became so widespread was because the city lay on the important Egnatian Way (Via Egnatiana).  Apart from that, it was a busy seaport and the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia.

People in other places are telling about how Paul began his work with the Thessalonians, how they turned away from false gods and came to serve the living and true God and are now waiting for the return of Jesus, his Son.

Here we have three marks of true conversion:

1. turning from idols (of all kinds);
2. serving God; and
3. waiting for Christ to return.

In his two short letters to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks much of the second coming of Christ. In this early period of Christianity, this was a major preoccupation for Christians.  As the years passed and there was no sign of the Second Coming and people were dying off before it happened, the conviction of an imminent coming waned and the focus switched to spending a long life in the service of the gospel.

Right now, though, they are waiting for the One who will save them from the Retribution, the Day of Reckoning, that is to come.  We have in these last two sentences of the reading two main elements of the Good News as preached by Paul: a vigorous emphasis on monotheism and a Christology stressing the coming of the Risen Lord.

We might ask ourselves, if Paul were writing to the Christian community in which we live—our diocese or our parish—what do we think he might want to say by way of praise or criticism?  What should we be developing further and what should we be correcting or abandoning?  And how much of what he might say could apply to me personally?

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Commentary on Romans 4:13, 16-18 Read Saturday of Week 28 of Ordinary Time – First Reading »

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Commentary on Isaiah 11:1-10

We have today a messianic poem describing the principal features of the coming Messiah:

• He is of Davidic stock;
• He will be filled with the spirit of the prophets who went before him;
• He will establish a society reflecting the peace and harmony of God himself.

The reading is a beautiful portrait of Jesus, although that was not in the mind of the prophet when this was written. It is a description of a future kingdom of peace. There is some dispute as to the author and the time of its writing. The emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit seems to point to a later period.

It begins:

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

Jesse was the father of David, and Jesus, of course, came through the Davidic line. The line is described as “the stump”, meaning root-stock, rather than a tree because, after the Babylonian exile, very little of the Davidic dynasty remained. But it is enough to produce the shoot that will be Jesus, the messianic King.

He is endowed with the beautiful gifts of the Spirit—the Spirit of God is seen operative throughout biblical history. It is first seen hovering over the abyss at the beginning of creation. It will inspire the Judges, give Joseph his wisdom, and guide the true prophets (the false prophets follow their own spirit). Later, that same Spirit will come down on Jesus as he is baptised by John the Baptist in the Jordan. It is the same Spirit which we wish to guide our own lives.

The Spirit’s gifts are listed in three pairs. Only six of the usual seven are mentioned here; the seventh, the ‘spirit of piety’, is added by the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, which early Christian writers often used. The New Jerusalem Bible says:

“The prophetic spirit confers on the Messiah the outstanding virtues of his great ancestors: the wisdom and insight of Solomon, the heroism and prudence of David, the knowledge and fear of God characteristic of patriarch and prophet—of Moses, Jacob and Abraham.”

Endowed with these gifts, the coming Messiah will manifest deep insight that goes beyond just what the senses perceive:

He shall not judge by what his eyes see
or decide by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor
and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth…

This will result in justice for the poor and the weak, but death for the wicked.

This combination of spiritual giftedness and deep sensitivity for those in greatest need brings about an environment of peace, symbolised by normally hostile animals lying down together in harmony. The sign that true justice prevails is the presence of enduring peace and harmony.

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Commentary on Luke 21:1-4

Today we begin the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel, preceding his account of the Passion. Jesus is still in Jerusalem and spending time preaching in the Temple.

One day, as he stood near the treasury where there were 13 trumpet-shaped boxes to receive the offerings, he saw among all the well-off people dropping in their (surplus) money, a poor widow who put in two copper coins of very small value.

Jesus immediately comments on her generosity and faith. The others were putting in offerings which they could easily afford; it would have involved no diminution of their lifestyle, no hardship of any kind. But this woman was a poor widow and therefore belonging to the least advantaged of all people in that society. In fact, poverty and widowhood were, for many, almost synonymous.

And this woman put in everything she had. It has been observed that she had two coins and she put in both. Under the circumstances and by the Law, she need only have put in one and kept the other for her own needs. Jesus sets her up as an example of someone who put her total trust in God’s providence. She gave everything to him.

No one is saying that one should literally follow her example—it could be seen as irresponsible. We are told to love our neighbours—but also ourselves. At the same time, how often when we do dip into our pockets do we really give to others money that we were thinking of spending on something we do not really need? Or are we like the people in today’s story who casually give money they will not miss in the slightest? There is a difference between ‘giving alms’ and sharing our goods and good fortune with those who have less—a lot less than us.

St Paul, writing to the Christians of Corinth (and quoting from Exodus 16:18) and appealing for help for poorer Christian communities, says in part:

For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. For I do not mean that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may also supply your need, in order that there may be equality. As it is written, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” (2 Cor 8:12-15)

This is a nice description of what justice in our society means.

There have been Christians who closely followed the widow’s example. St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) absolutely refused to have any stable income for her work, and she was not alone in this. And it has often been remarked that it is people at the lower end of our society who are most generous in supporting needy causes.

The fact that this story comes just before the Passion has led many to see in this woman a symbol of Jesus himself, who will, in the words of the Letter to the Philippians, “empty himself” completely and surrender his whole life totally into the hands of his Father, holding nothing back.

But even during Jesus’ life, he seems to have had no private means of any kind. At the same time, he was not a beggar. He simply lived a life where he gave totally of himself, and others gave him in return just what he needed at any particular time.

Clearly, most people cannot literally follow the example of Jesus, but there are many examples of people who did. If only we too could have that kind of trust, that kind of generosity, that ability to share and that kind of freedom—freedom from material ‘wants’ and freedom for others.

The richest person is not the one who has accumulated much, but the one who has the least needs. In this sense, this poor widow was rich indeed.

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Commentary on Genesis 3:1-8 Read Friday of Week 5 of Ordinary Time – First Reading »

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Commentary on Titus 2:1-8,11-14

Today the Letter continues by giving some moral instructions to the community at large. It also makes very clear and challenging demands on Titus himself. With the many false teachers in mind, Titus is told that he in particular is to spell out the kind of behaviour that follows from the true teaching of the Gospel. Paul writes, “as for you”—where the ‘you’ is emphatic and contrasts the teaching of Titus with that of the false and Gnostic teachers previously denounced.

Instructions are now given on the kind of behaviour that is expected of all, regardless of age, gender or status in the community. In living out the Gospel, the older men in the community, by virtue of their seniority and experience of life, were expected to be:

…temperate, serious, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance.

This was to be in contrast to many Cretans, described earlier as:

…liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons. (Titus 1:12)

The same standards were expected of older women in the Christian community, where it is clear that they had a better status than their non-Christian counterparts. They are:

…not to be slanderers or enslaved to much wine…

This perhaps suggests that such behaviour was characteristic of Cretan women.

On the contrary, they are to give an example to younger women:

…to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind…

And in the mode of their time, they are also told to be:

…submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.

Notably, this last injunction should be balanced with what Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians says are the duties of the husband towards his wife:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… (Eph 5:25)

In these two passages, different Greek words for “love” are used: philia (in Titus) and agape (in Ephesians). Actually, philia is probably the more appropriate word for a united married couple.

And—it is important to remember this—all of this is part of living the Gospel message in a very practical way. This is how married couples give witness to the message of the Gospel. If they fail to live in this way, the effectiveness of the Gospel can be diminished.

Titus himself then is urged especially to give an example to younger men. The call to be “self-controlled in all things” was very much in the Greek tradition, but it is something frequently mentioned in these letters. It is also clear that young men then were not very different to those in every other age, including our own. “Moderation” is not usually considered one of their strong characteristics.

Titus is called on to be an example of integrity and consistency in his teaching and his lifestyle so that there can never be any serious criticism levelled at him. Perhaps Titus was still a young man, and not yet well respected by the Cretan churches. The demands on a leader are all-inclusive, involving not only his word but also his lifestyle. As the Letter of James tells us:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will face stricter judgment. (James 3:1)

Whether we like it or not, the message is often identified with the messenger. So where Titus is seen to be consistently faithful, when his behaviour matches his word, his opponents will have nothing to throw against him.

Of course, in practice, we do have to distinguish between the message and the messenger. The Church or any member of it cannot and should not be identified with Christianity itself, which is a vision of life, an ideal to be aimed at. The message is sublime, but it is carried in very brittle and very porous vessels, and it is important to remember that.

At this point, two verses which deal with slaves are omitted, presumably on the assumption that they are no longer relevant. We might reflect, however, on how many people in our societies are treated virtually as slaves e.g. exploited migrant workers, young children abducted and trafficked for the sex industry, just to mention two examples.

The passage concludes with some general remarks about the Christian faith. Through Christ, God’s gratuitous love for peoples everywhere (and not just for an elite group) has been made known to us. Through Paul’s words, we know that this message must influence the way we live. It tells us what we need to do, and the kind of people we need to become so that we can one day be forever united with our God. Everything that does not point us in that direction should be removed from our lives. Orthodoxy must be accompanied by orthopraxis, i.e. right thinking by right doing.

To do so calls for certain standards of behaviour and acting as we prepare for the day when we come face to face with “our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ”, who has made it all possible for us. This phrase is often referred to by the Fathers of the Church to affirm the divinity of Jesus Christ.

It was the sacrifice of his own life on the cross which brought about our becoming a truly free people:

…a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.

And that is a definition of freedom—the ability, in every situation, to do what is good.

Preaching alone will not bring about change in our communities. It must be followed up by individuals, families and groups consciously trying to implement the message that comes to us in the Gospel. And we can only do that really as a mutually supportive community. It is not something that can be done left entirely to our own devices. The ‘Church’ is not some amorphous entity which we can praise or blame at will—it consists of all of us—individuals, families and groups. If the Church is at fault, it means that the fault lies in ourselves—that is where it is to be tackled.

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Commentary on Zechariah 8:20-23

This passage is the last of our three selected readings from Zechariah. It is also the final section of the first part of the book and is another look forward to a time of messianic salvation. There are more words of encouragement from Zechariah for the Jews who have returned from exile and who are still trying to re-establish their homes in Jerusalem. Things do not look too good right now, but Yahweh promises that the time is soon coming when people from even Gentile cities all over will come flocking to Jerusalem, drawn there as if by some magnetic power:

Peoples shall yet come, the inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Come, let us go to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.

This prediction anticipates fulfilment of the promise of gentile blessing in Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham:

…all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen 12:3)

Isaiah also has Yahweh say:

…my house [the Temple in Jerusalem] shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. (Is 56:7)

This is a saying quoted in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus drove the money-changers from the Temple:

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations…But you have made it a den of robbers.
(Mark 11:17)

Zechariah continues:

Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’

True godliness in a person will attract others to the Lord. ‘Ten’ indicates a large or complete number in Hebrew. Incidentally, the word ‘Jew’, for the people of the kingdom of Judah after the exile, first appears in Jeremiah. Most of the Old Testament speaks of ‘Hebrews’ and ‘Israelites’.

We, as Christians, belong now to what we call the “New Jerusalem”, the People of God. Are people flocking to be part of our ‘city’? Are they saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you”?  Is that what they see in us—people truly infused with the spirit of God and Jesus Christ? Are we the salt of the earth, leading people to praise God because of what they see in us?

Certainly, there are people every year who are applying to join our communities, people who are received through Baptism every Easter. There are also, alas, those who are leaving our ‘city’ and not coming back. Is it that they no longer can see that God is with us? If that is the case, what changes are needed in our way of living the gospel?

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Commentary on Romans 11:29-36

Paul continues to reflect on the strange ways by which the rejection of Jesus by the Jews has brought God’s mercy to the once disobedient Gentiles. Once again, he emphasises that by turning to the Gentiles, God has not changed his mind about the giving of his gifts or the choices he has made in the past. His love for the Jews has not changed one bit. The problem is in the way they are responding to him by their rejection of Jesus Christ as his Son.

In the past the Gentiles, too, were disobedient to God, but now, through the rejection of the Jews, God’s mercy and compassion has been shown to them.  In the same way, says Paul, those Jews who are disobedient now will receive mercy through the same mercy which has been shown to the Gentiles:

For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Disobedience is not peculiar to any particular group, be they Jews or Gentiles. There has been a period of disobedience for each in order that God may show mercy to them all.  God’s door is open to every single person; it is for each one to make the decision to enter. That choice is up to each person to open themselves to God’s loving compassion.

Paul now ends the chapter and this section of the Letter with a profound doxology on God’s inscrutable wisdom:

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

This doxology is a natural outpouring of Paul’s praise to God, whose wisdom and knowledge brought about his great plan for the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles.  As Paul has indicated throughout these chapters, both Jew and Gentile, despite the religious stubbornness of each, have received the gift of faith.  Thus the divine plan or ‘mystery’ of salvation has become open and comprehensible to the whole human race.

He paraphrases from the great Psalm 139 on the all-knowing and ever-present God:

For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given a gift to him,
to receive a gift in return?

How and whom God calls is an impenetrable mystery, and why some respond and others do not is equally beyond our understanding.  There is nothing we can ever give to God which has not first been given to us by him.

We can only echo the concluding words of Paul:

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

Blessed are those who come to understand this and make it the basis of all their living.

So often we try to reduce God down to our human level.  And when we do, we find ourselves getting into difficult situations, especially when we try to explain how and why things happen.  We must never forget God’s two great attributes: his transcendence and his immanence.

Through his transcendence, God surpasses all we can possibly conceive about him.  As St Thomas Aquinas tells us, as soon as we make an affirmation about God, it has to be denied.  For whatever truth may be in it, it is totally short of the full truth.  For instance, we say “God is love”.  Yes, up to a point, but at the same time God’s love is something totally other than love in the limited way we can ever experience it on this earth.

We experience God’s immanence in a similar way.  God is totally present to everything he has made. Closer to me than breathing, as St Augustine put it.  God is both so close and yet so far.  So in our trying to understand the situation of the Gentiles and the Jews, we can only accept with humility the call we have received to follow Jesus.  This is similar to many other situations in life which we find difficult to understand.

While it is important that we always try to go as far as we can in our understanding, we also have to recognise that in probing God’s ways we will always be severely limited.

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Commentary on Luke 8:19-21

The mother and brothers of Jesus come looking for him, but they cannot get to him because of the crush of people in the house where he is speaking. Jesus was in Capernaum at the time and Nazareth was about 50 km (30 miles) away. The mention of ‘brothers’ would commonly indicate cousins and not just siblings. When the message is passed in to Jesus, he says to all:

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

The story is told in harsher terms in Mark. He has Jesus say, for instance:

Who are my mother and my brothers? (Mark 3:33)

It is suggested there that their purpose was to take him away. On the one hand, they thought he was mad and an embarrassment to the family and, on the other hand, that he might get them into trouble with the authorities because of the provocative things he was saying and doing such as questioning traditional interpretations of the Law. We see a similar embarrassment on the part of the parents of the man born blind in John’s Gospel. They refuse to speak to the authorities about their son:

Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself. (John 9:21)

Luke’s account is softer and just focuses on the saying of Jesus. In fact, Luke has taken this passage out of its context in Mark (3:31-35) and turns it into a conclusion to his short section on the parables. In doing so, he modifies Mark’s statement:

Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. (Mark 3:35)

This is done to match the end of Luke’s parable of the sower:

But as for that [i.e. the seed which fell] in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with endurance. (Luke 8:15)

Luke has Jesus say:

My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. (Luke 8:21)

To a society which regarded itself as God’s chosen people merely by birth and an external ritual like circumcision, Jesus asserts that belonging to God has little to do with blood or race, but only with the relationship one establishes with God.

There is a lot of meaning in the words of the message:

Your mother and your brothers are standing outside…

It was clear from their behaviour that they were not, like the seed falling on fertile soil, ‘hearing’ him and so they were outsiders. Those who really ‘hear’, no matter who they are or where they come from, are ‘insiders’ and belong to the family of Jesus.

Of course, we know from elsewhere, especially in Luke’s Gospel, that Mary is not being condemned here. In fact, this is where her greatness really lies. Clearly it partly lies in her being chosen to be the mother of God’s Son. But perhaps it lies even more in her saying ‘Yes’ (“…let it be with me according to your word”), in her unswerving faithfulness to that ‘Yes’ and in her standing by her Son to the very end when all the rest had fled.

When, on another occasion, she was indirectly praised for being the mother of such a Son, Jesus had spoken in words very similar to today:

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it! (Luke 11:28)

Our discipleship, too, is not determined by our being born into a Catholic family or just by being baptised or by observing the external requirements of our religion, but by our total commitment to the gospel and to an unconditional following of Jesus. Only then can we truly be said to be his brother or sister.

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Commentary on Colossians 2:6-15

We come now to the instruction part of the letter with some warnings against errors into which the Colossians were reported to be falling. As we saw in yesterday’s reading (Monday of Week 23), they were apparently being carried away by a fascination with various cosmic powers and angelic forces. Paul begins by telling the Colossians that, since they have received Jesus as their Lord and Christ (Messiah), their lives should be totally rooted in him and built on him. They will be held firm by the faith which was passed on to them and they should be filled with expressions of thanksgiving.

But then comes the warning. They are to make sure that they are not made captive by the lure of some kind of ‘philosophy’, a set of ideas that comes from humans and which is based on the principles of the world, but not on Christ. To deny or abandon Christ after he has liberated them from the tyranny of ‘darkness’ by going back to error is nothing else than to undergo a new slavery.

As he did earlier, Paul goes on to refute the ideas with which the Colossians had been toying, ideas that the world was governed by cosmic angels of some kind. It is in Christ and only in him, in bodily form, that the divinity lives in all its fullness.

The word “fullness” (Greek, pleroma) here is defined as the ‘divinity’ that is now ‘filling’ Christ in his human body. In other words, the risen Christ, through his incarnation and resurrection, unites together the divine and the created. In this way, he himself is the pleroma of all possible categories of created being.

And it is in Christ, too, that the Colossians find their own fulfilment, in the One who is the head of every sovereignty and ruling force. A Christian shares this pleroma of Christ by being part of it, i.e. part of Christ’s body, and as a consequence of this, humans are raised to be higher than even the highest grade of angel. Paul then also reminds them that they have been circumcised, but with a special kind of circumcision. Here he is likely speaking to the Jewish Christians. There may have been some backsliding on their part and others coming under the influence of Jewish proselytisers emphasising the importance of circumcision. The same problem is dealt with in the letter to the Galatians.

Christian ‘circumcision’ is one performed not by human hands, where a piece of skin is removed, but:

…a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ.

It is the total giving of oneself to Christ, to God—the complete letting go of the natural self. This is circumcision according to Christ and it is sacramentally celebrated through baptism. Baptism was done by having the catechumen take off his or her clothes, be fully immersed in a pool and then emerging and putting on a white garment. It was a re-enacting of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus himself and an expression of total identity with him.

…you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

Then, speaking to the gentile Christians, Paul says:

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.

Through our faith, that is, through our total commitment to Jesus, we are reconciled and made one with him. No physical circumcision can bring about this. Prior to that, they were dead, but now:

…God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses…

The Colossians—both Jewish and Gentiles—are now liberated from their debt to the Law; it no longer governs their lives. This liberation was brought about by that debt’s being wiped out—by nailing it to the cross.

The Law was able to do nothing about a sinner except condemn that person to death. This death sentence is what God has carried out on his own Son in order to suppress it for the rest of the world, and it was for this very reason that God’s Son was ‘made sin’, ‘subject to the Law’, and ‘cursed’ by the Law.

In the person of his Son, whom he allowed to be executed, God nailed up and destroyed our death warrant, as well as all the charges it made against us. Finally, God:

…set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

The tradition was that the Law had been brought down to Moses by angels, and by honouring them as the lawgivers, people became distracted from the true Creator. Now that God has brought the regime of that Law to an end by means of the crucifixion, these angelic powers have also lost the one thing that had given them power, and they too must acknowledge that Christ has triumphed over them.

Once again Paul demonstrates that Christ is supreme in sovereignty and the angels and all other cosmic powers are subservient to him. Christ, then, as we saw earlier, is the head of all created things and the head of his people—his body, the Church. Before him everyone must bow.

For us, it is important that we not be misled by fads and fashions which can come into our society or into our church. The problems the Colossians had can be found practically everywhere in the Church and society today.  We have the paradox of an agnostic worship of science combined with an obsession with ‘New Age’ thinking and all its eccentricities.

It is so important to realise and to experience that the Gospel in its purity is a genuine source of freedom, because it touches the deepest aspirations of the human spirit. Many sects and elitist groups both within and outside the Church, however attractive, do not normally increase our inner freedom; often they do quite the contrary.