Colossians 1:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"In the hope laid up for you in heaven." He speaks of future blessings. This is against temptations, so that they may not seek rest here.

Otherwise someone might say: What benefit is there in loving the saints when they suffer affliction? We rejoice, he says, that you have acquired great blessings for yourselves in heaven.

"In the hope laid up" points to something secure. "Of which you heard before in the word of truth." This is a reproachful word to them, because they had long possessed it and then changed.

Of this you heard before, he says, "in the true word of the gospel." He rightly bears witness to its truth by the word, because there is no falsehood in it.

"The gospel." He does not say "preaching," but calls it gospel, continually reminding them of God's benefactions. He gives them this very reminder only after first praising them.

"In the hope laid up for you in heaven." You love the saints, he says, not from human calculations, but in hope of future blessings. Or else: we thank God that you are to inherit incorruptible blessings.

For it is not laid up on earth, where it would be subject to corruption, but in heaven, where it is whole and secure. Therefore do not waver in hope, for what is laid up for you is in a safe place.

This applies to those who have undergone trials, so that they may not seek deliverance from them here and may not grow faint in trials. They have a great reward.

"Of which you heard before in the true word of the gospel." He did not say "preaching," but "gospel," to remind them of God's benefactions. For the gospel is the proclamation of good.

Especially for the sake of the hope by which we await what you will receive in the heavens for your offerings. Of this you did not hear now, but before.

“For the hope laid up for you in the heavens.” You do this zealously, says the Apostle, looking with the eyes of faith toward the Kingdom of Heaven prepared for you. “Of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,” “which is among you, as also in all the world.” The divine Gospel proclaims this Kingdom to you, and not to you only, but to all men. Then the Apostle also shows the power of the preaching.

Here the Apostle shows them that the hope set before them, of the resurrection and the Kingdom, was not given by angelic governance, but by the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Bodily exercise in stillness purifies the body from the material element within it. The exercise of the mind humbles the soul and purifies it from coarse thoughts about passing things. It draws the soul away from a state in which its thoughts are passionately fixed on them. It brings the soul into a state in which they are moved by its divine contemplation. And it brings the soul near to the stripping bare of the mind, which is called immaterial contemplation. This is spiritual discipline. For it lifts thought from earthly things and brings it near to the first contemplation of the Spirit. It raises it to God through the vision of ineffable glory and through the preparatory delight of the mind in hope.

“The hope laid up for you in the heavens.” This means those spiritual blessings, that future blessedness which is the object of Christian hope and, at the same time, the strongest impulse to love and virtue. The Apostle directs his speech against mystics and vainglorious ascetics. They delighted in faith in itself, asserting that all promises of rewards, even spiritual ones, and all threats make faith and love for God and neighbor insincere, self-interested feelings. They regarded these as consequences of calculation or fear. They forgot that the earthly life of a Christian is a period of education, an imperfect age requiring threats and promises. Through this path, man is led up to perfect self-renunciation and the purest love.

As in all the Pauline epistles, his Epistle to the Colossians has a preface (Col 1:1-11) and a conclusion with greetings (Col 4:7-18). Between these parts there is a doctrinal section (Col 1:12-2:23) and a moral section (Col 3-4:6).

In the preface, the Apostle Paul bestows grace and peace upon the Colossians from himself and from Timothy the brother. He then informs them that, since he heard from Epaphras of their faith and love toward all the saints, that is, Christians, he has not ceased praying for them.

In praising faith, love, and hope, the Apostle clearly means new manifestations of them. These appeared in mutual respect for faith and devotion, not only toward one another, but also toward neighboring Christians and even distant ones. This may have taken the form of help, for example, to the Christians of Jerusalem, which Epaphras could have reported to the Apostle Paul.

After the inscription and greeting (vv. 1-2), the Apostle expresses thanks to God for the rather favorable condition of the Church of Colossae. He had learned of this from Epaphras, who had communicated correct notions of Christianity to the Colossians.

The Colossians believe in Christ and perform works of Christian love. They are guided by hope for future, heavenly blessedness, and they nourish toward one another true love, free from fleshly motives (έν πνεύμα.).

By “hope” is meant the thing hoped for, namely future blessings, as Saint Chrysostom says. They have been laid up and appointed for them in heaven.

They are called “hope” because they are appropriated by hope, with such certainty as though they were already possessed.

Above he spoke of the labor of love, and labor needs support. The firmest support for it is the hope of future blessings.

“You love the saints,” he says, “not for anything human, but because of the hope of future blessings,” as blessed Theophylact says.

“You do this zealously, looking with the eyes of faith upon the Kingdom of Heaven prepared for you,” says blessed Theodoret.

Yet hope influences not only love, but also faith. Faith does not exist without promises, and promises draw one to it.