Colossians 3:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Then you also will appear with Him." Therefore you do not appear now. See how he has transferred them into heaven itself.

As I said, he always strives to show that they have the same things as Christ. In all his epistles he speaks of this, to show that believers have communion with Him in everything.

For this reason he speaks of the head and the body, and does everything that serves to explain this.

Therefore, if we shall appear then, let us not grieve if we do not enjoy glory now. If the present life is not life, and if life is hidden, then we must pass the present life as dead men.

"Then," he says, "you also will appear with Him in glory." He did not say "in glory" without purpose. A pearl too is hidden while it is in the shell.

Therefore, if we are insulted or suffer anything else, let us not grieve. The present life is not our life. We are strangers and sojourners.

At the Second Coming, Christ will appear to all as God, coming in glory with the angels. Now He is so hidden that even His name is condemned.

Then you also will appear, and not simply, but in glory. Therefore seek that day, not this one. Strive toward that life.

For then true life will come for you. The present life is death, since it consists of corruption, of a movement forward and back.

Therefore do not seek honors and glory here, for your glory is there. A pearl is hidden while it is in the shell, but when the shell is broken, it shines gloriously.

So also we, while we are in this corruptible body, must live hidden, estranged from glory. But when this corruptible body is destroyed, then our glory will also come, if by our works we prove worthy of it.

What then does Paul say next? "When Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." Therefore now is the time to groan, and then to rejoice. Now is the time to desire, and then to open wide the arms (cf. Eccl 3:1-8). Now what we desire is absent, but let us not weaken in desire. Desire nourished for a long time trains us, because He Who promised does not deceive us.

Why even now are there few Christians who live fully in a Christian manner?

First, because Christians value too little the love of our Savior for us. Second, because they think too little about the life beyond the grave.

They live here carelessly and negligently, either relying on God's mercy and longsuffering, or on their own momentary, final repentance before death.

Because of such human carelessness, the holy Apostle had to awaken the Colossians to a good life by the thought of the life beyond the grave.

For true Christians this is a glorious and eternal life. Chapter 3, verse 4: Brethren, when Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear, or must appear, in glory, if Christ lived in you and you lived by Christian teaching.

When Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear in His glory, which He promised you at His first coming.

You became dead to the present life because you were buried with Christ in baptism, and you received the hope of resurrection.

For this is the meaning of what was said: "Your life is hidden with Christ in God." As soon as He rose, all of us were raised.

Yet we do not yet see the actual event, for the mystery of our resurrection is hidden in Him. Therefore, when He appears a second time, then we shall receive the resurrection and enjoy immortal life.

The Apostle very fittingly said of Christ, "He will appear," for He is invisible even to you and altogether unknown to unbelievers.

He used the same expression about us, saying, "You will appear in glory." For in hope we possess the promise of good things. Then what is now unknown will be manifest.

Since the Apostle rejected the observances under the Law, lest they think they may sin without fear, he necessarily offers wise instructions about this as well.

Before the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, human souls were dead because of the ancestral sin, being deprived of divine grace. Their bodies did not rise after death, but remained eternally dead and dissolved.

When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He made human souls alive again and gave them the gifts of the All-Holy Spirit. He also gave life to bodies, granting them the power and grace of resurrection.

Therefore Christ is our life, as He Himself teaches when He says, "I am the resurrection and the life" (Jn 11:25).

In this world unbelievers neither know nor believe that Jesus Christ is life and the Son of the true God. The faithful know it, but only in part, by faith.

In the moral section, the holy Apostle Paul first depicts the Christian life in general, according to its essence, without touching on Christians' external relations. He says that the general character of the Christian life must be detachment from everything earthly. We must set our mind on things above, not on earthly things, for our life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:1-4).

As he begins to impart moral teaching, the Apostle first outlines the general concept of the Christian life. It is detachment from everything earthly and striving toward the heavenly (vv. 1-2), toward life hidden in Christ and glorification with Him in eternal glory (vv. 3-4).

Pointing to the highest foundation of the Christian life, the Apostle says that through baptism Christians rose with Christ from death to sin. Therefore they must also be with Him in glory.

For this they must strive toward heaven with all their strength, constantly thinking of the things above, not of earthly things. For earthly life Christians must be as though dead.

Beginning his moral exhortations, the Apostle in this case starts from the fact of the spiritual resurrection of the Colossian Christians.

They rose with Christ to a new life. Therefore they must strive toward the place where He is, with whom they have so closely bound themselves, namely heaven.

They must think about and care for what pertains to this heavenly life. They must not give their heart over to earthly things and relations.

Christians no longer have any reason to care for what pertains exclusively to earthly life. They have died spiritually. Therefore nothing earthly can occupy their mind in itself.

Granted, their new life is not something manifest to all. Yet it has undoubtedly begun, and it will be revealed in everyone's sight when Christ appears again in all His majesty.

For their life is bound to Christ's life, and His life is still hidden from men in its majesty.

Now it is not visible how you are in God, nor how glorious this is. But then it will be revealed, and all will see it.

By this assurance the Apostle placed fire beneath those who had become zealous to live in God. He also removed much that could have weakened its power.

They might have thought: leave everything, think of nothing earthly, and be God’s. Yet what is our condition? The Apostle assures them that this is only for a time.

Your triumph also will come. You too will appear in glory. Be of good courage, and do not cease with zeal to set your mind only on the things above and to keep your life hidden in God.