Colossians 1:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since the Apostle had mentioned heavenly things above, he now shows that all the enmity has its origin here, not there. They, the inhabitants of heaven, had long desired reconciliation, and God also desired it, but you did not.

He makes it wholly clear that, if men had remained enemies until the last times, the angels could have done nothing. They could neither persuade men nor, having persuaded them, free them from the devil.

There would have been no benefit in persuading them without binding the ruler, the devil. Likewise, there would have been no benefit in binding the ruler if those held under his power did not wish to be delivered.

Both things had to be done. The angels could do neither, but Christ fulfilled both. And persuading men was a more wondrous work than destroying death. The latter depended entirely on Him, and He alone was master of it. In the former He did not act alone, but we also took part. We more readily accomplish what depends on ourselves.

Thus what was more important the Apostle places after. He did not simply say "enemies," but "alienated," which signifies intense enmity. Nor does he say only alienated, but also not expecting reunion.

"And enemies in disposition," he says, showing that their alienation was not only in intention. In what, then? "By evil works," that is, you both were enemies and acted as enemies.

Therefore he did not simply say "enemies," but "alienated," that is, not even thinking of return. For you were enemies in disposition, that is, by choice.

Nor did the misery stop there. It was also manifested in evil deeds. That is, you both were enemies and acted as enemies.

By all this he shows that angels had the power neither to change our conviction nor to free us from the devil. They themselves were our enemies, and the one who possessed us had not yet been bound. But Christ both bound the enemy and persuaded us to renounce him.

When the Godhead descended and clothed Himself in human nature, the angels proclaimed peace on earth. But when human nature, united with the Godhead, was to ascend and sit at the right hand of God, the children announced peace in heaven before Him, saying: "Hosanna in the highest!" (Mt 21:9-15).

From this the Apostle learned to say: He "made peace through the blood of His cross," both things on earth and things in heaven.

"And you," writes the Apostle, "who once were alienated and enemies," that is, in paganism, "He has now reconciled" (Jesus Christ) "in the body of His flesh through His death," that is, in a fleshly body, visible and tangible, which died on the cross, "to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before Himself" (Col 1:21-22).

This is, of course, on the condition that the merits of Christ's cross be appropriated by faith and by the ascetic labors of free good-doing.

"It is a great thing to reconcile," says Saint John Chrysostom, "and greater still that it is through the Son. Here are five things worthy of wonder: He reconciled with God, by Himself, by death, by the cross. How wisely Saint Paul combined all this in a few words! He especially wished to show that the Son of God accomplished the work of reconciliation not by the utterance of a word, but by giving Himself up," not in appearance, but in the body of flesh.

"But what does it mean that He made peace with heavenly things? As for earthly things, this is understandable, because here everything is filled with enmity. Each of us was at odds with himself and with many others. But how did He make peace with heavenly things? Was there discord and disagreement there? No. But earth had been torn away from heaven, and the angels had armed themselves against men, seeing their Master insulted by them. The Lord cut off this enmity. How? By transferring man to heaven, God brought angels down to men and raised men up to heaven."

In the reference to Christ's blood, our recent interpreter sees a refutation of the teaching of the Colossian heretics about angelic mediation in salvation. The angels could not accomplish this work, since they are spirits. Christ, however, being God, assumed a human, fleshly body and in it tasted death.

Concerning faith and hope as the first conditions for receiving justification with all its gifts, His Grace Theophan says: "Faith and hope are for progress what air, moisture, and warmth are for a developing seed. Both give rise to many good manifestations. By their influence these are powerful enough to keep zeal in constant tension. As long as faith and hope themselves remain strong, zeal for holiness, or active love, cannot grow weak."

But faith presupposes the teaching of those who teach. Therefore the Apostle urges them to believe the teaching of the Gospel, and then speaks of true preachers of the faith.

Against the false spiritualism of the Colossian false teachers, who attributed the work of reconciliation to a spirit, a spiritual being, the Apostle emphasizes that God accomplished reconciliation in the body of Christ's flesh. This means in His earthly, not yet glorified body, which underwent an ordinary death.

Likewise, the reconciliation of the Colossians itself was not something fantastic, but entirely real. Before God at the last judgment they will truly appear free from sin and guilt, if only they firmly preserve faith and hope in what was proclaimed to them, what is preached in all the world, and of which the Apostle Paul became a minister.

And you, who were once alienated, alienated from God and from the life of God. He does not indicate how this happened, because this was known to them.

Through the fall they fell away from God, became alienated from Him, and remained in this alienation. Life outside God pleased them and was chosen as a constant way of life, in which they had remained until then.

Saint Chrysostom understands the words who were alienated as meaning who were alienating yourselves. The Apostle says this so that you may not imagine some necessity in such alienation.

It is not the same thing to deliver from evil a man who has suffered evil by necessity, and a man who has willingly subjected himself to it. The first is worthy of pity, but the second of aversion.

Nevertheless, God has reconciled you to Himself, though you had departed from Him not unwillingly or under compulsion, but voluntarily. The angels had long desired reconciliation, and so had God. Only you did not want it.

In the word alienating yourselves, this thought is also offered: you not only did not expect it, and not only did not desire it. You did not even think about it, but deliberately turned away from God and fled from Him.

And enemies in your mind. Hostility toward God, as explained before, is a departure from the will of God and stubborn persistence in it, in defiance of God.

Alienation gives only the thought of inattention and coldness. Hostility makes one suppose a certain ill will and irritated resistance, perhaps not directly against God, but against life according to God, and through it against God Himself.

For one who has loved sin, everything divine is unpleasant. If he stands on the paths of sin, it irritates him and arouses ill will. When someone turns to God, such dispositions are changed.

Ill will turns against sin, and goodwill begins to warm toward God and divine things.

In your mind, τη διανοια, signifies the whole inner structure: thoughts, feelings, dispositions, plans, sympathies, and the whole person with consciousness and freedom.

With all this, he says, you were given over to wicked works, to evil and lawless deeds. You walked in them, not even in thought going outside their circle.

Since such an order of life is contrary to the will of God, in your whole being you were permeated with opposition to God, or hostility toward God.

Saint Chrysostom says: The Apostle writes, enemies in your mind by wicked works. By this he shows that their alienation was not only in intention, but also in wicked works.

That is, you both were enemies and acted as enemies. What is within is also without. From the abundance of the heart, not only the mouth speaks, but the feet walk and the hands act.

Such then were you once, that is, before your faith and your cleaving to Christ the Lord.