Colossians 2:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then he beautifully adds here concerning the benefaction, even better than in the Epistle to the Romans. There he says, "circumcision is of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter" (Rom 2:29).

Here, however, he says it is in Christ.

Therefore no one whatever, not only among men but even among angels, could or can give the divine fullness of life and perfection.

For this, on the one hand, the highest power and might were necessary, which they do not have. On the other hand, human bodiliness was necessary for substantial communion with men, and this they cannot have.

For all these reasons, that philosophical fullness, or pleroma, of which the heretics in Colossae spoke after the pagan philosophers, is illusory.

There is only one actual fullness: Jesus Christ. From Him alone one can inexhaustibly draw all that is needed for life and piety.

"In Him our nature is united with God, and through this we also in Him have become partakers of the divine nature," says Blessed Theophylact.

"How then do you, leaving the Lord, think to run to the angels, whose head He is? By all that has been said, the Apostle completely breaks down the false teaching about angels."

This was the teaching that the visiting philosophers attempted to force upon the Colossians.

According to our newer interpreter, here in verse 10 "the logical emphasis lies on the words 'in Him.' The Apostle marks with special force the thought that in Christ, and not in anyone else, the Colossians have the fullness of grace.

Only in communion and close union with Him is the Christian's spiritual life possible." Since this union is founded on the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, one may say that the most essential thought here is this.

Only through faith in Jesus Christ, as the One incarnate for our sake, is a truly perfect and saving life possible. Together with this, every manifestation of the Godhead is possible.

This is so both in Himself and in the beings created by Him, which strive toward the fullness of being and life.

You are already filled in Him. This is the second reason why one should not listen to the seducers. The first is that in the Lord Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

To whomever those philosophers might direct you, all are lower than the Lord. Therefore there is no reason for you to listen to these empty talkers.

But someone might think: let all the fullness of the Godhead be in the Lord. Yet that is in Him. What is it to us? These well-wishers promise many things to us ourselves.

As if in answer to this, the Apostle says: you are already filled in Him. They are still promising, but in the Lord you are already filled. All your spiritual needs, even the greatest and most troubling to the heart, have already been satisfied in Him.

What do we need? Forgiveness of sins? You have it. New life? It has been given. Grace-filled help? The Spirit of God dwells in you.

Blessed life in eternity? You have already been raised together, seated together in the heavenly places, made to reign together, and acknowledged as fellow heirs. All this is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nor only this. In Him we are filled with the Godhead itself. For He is one with the Father, and we are one with Him. Therefore, through Him, we also are not strangers to the Father. We enter into union with Him and receive the gift of adoption.

"I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (cf. Jn 14:20), says the Lord. Saint Peter the Apostle, after listing everything with which we are filled in the Lord, concludes by saying that in Him we become partakers of the divine nature.

These are his words: "His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and piety, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. By these He has given us precious and great promises, that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature" (cf. 2 Pet 1:3-4).

After this, it is right to cry out: "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace" (cf. Jn 1:16).

Everything said here is a fuller exposition of what Saint Chrysostom said on these words of the Apostle: "What do these words mean, that you are filled in Him? They mean that you have as much as He has. As the Godhead has settled and dwells in Him, so also in you.

"Saint Paul constantly strives to bring us near to Christ. For example, he says, 'He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him' (cf. Eph 2:6). And again, 'If we endure, we shall also reign with Him' (2 Tim 2:12).

"And again, 'How will He not also with Him give us all things?' (cf. Rom 8:32). He also calls us fellow heirs (cf. Rom 8:17)."

The same thoughts are found in our other interpreters. Blessed Theodoret writes: "In Him you are filled. For from Him you have enjoyed grace and received the rays proceeding from thence."

Blessed Theophylact explains why this is so: "Because in Him our nature is united with God, and through this we also in Him have become partakers of the divine nature."

Even such a reminder was already enough to turn the Colossians away from being carried off by some philosophy that could entice them with deceptive promises. You already have this, something great and most glorious. Nothing greater than this can even be promised.

Why, then, should you listen to these seducers? But he strengthens his exhortation further. Those deceivers promised many things in the name of the heavenly powers.

The Apostle now adds: what are these heavenly powers before the Lord? They are His creation and His servants. However well-disposed they may be toward you, they cannot give you as much as the Lord.

And how could they give you anything without the Lord's will? They are servants. What the Lord commands, that they do. To suggest such thoughts the Apostle added: "Who is the head of all principality and power."

By "principality and power" the Apostle includes all the ranks of the angelic world. By the word "head" he indicated that the Lord is their Creator and Master, who holds them in His right hand and rules over them.

Blessed Theodoret writes: "The Master Christ, according to His humanity, is our head. Over Angels and Archangels He rules according to the divine nature."

Let us add the words of Oecumenius: "By the word 'head' the Apostle indicated causality. For Christ is the cause of everything created, both heavenly and earthly, as Creator and Fashioner of all things. Without Him nothing was made that was made (Jn 1:3).

"By Him the heavenly powers also were created. Thus all things are from Christ and through Christ, according to the good pleasure of the Father and with the cooperation of the Comforter, the Spirit."

From this blessed Theophylact draws this conclusion: "How, then, do you think to abandon the Lord and flee to the Angels, whose head He is?" By all that has been said, the Apostle utterly destroys the false teaching about Angels.

This teaching, as a dogma, the foreign philosophers were attempting to impose upon the Colossians.