Colossians 4:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"The greeting is by my own hand, Paul's." This is proof of closeness and affection. When they saw his letters, they felt a special love toward them.

"Remember my chains." What consolation! This was enough to make them do anything. It was enough to breathe into them noble resolve for every contest. It not only gave them courage, but bound them more closely to one another.

"Grace be with you all. Amen." "Remember my chains. Grace be with you all. Amen." He dispelled fear. If the teacher is in chains, still grace releases him. It is also the work of grace that it allowed him to become a prisoner.

Listen to what Luke says. The apostles returned "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 5:41). Truly, one must be counted worthy to suffer dishonor and chains for Christ.

If someone who has a beloved person counts it gain to suffer something for him, how much greater is the happiness of suffering for Christ? Let us not be vexed at insults for Christ. Let us also remember Paul's chains, and let this remembrance encourage us.

Suppose, for example, that you are urging someone to give to the poor for Christ's sake. Remind such people of Paul's chains. Say to them, "We are miserable people, if he gave his body to chains for Him, and you are unwilling even to share food."

Or have you already become great by your works? Remember Paul's chains. Remember that you have not yet suffered anything like this, and you will cease exalting yourself.

Have you desired what belongs to your neighbor? Remember Paul's chains, and you will see how absurd this is. He is in distress, while you live for your own pleasure.

But do pleasures still strongly attract you? Bring Paul's prison to mind. You are his disciple. You are his fellow soldier. Is there sound reason in this, that your fellow soldier is in chains, while you enjoy pleasures?

Or has sorrow overtaken you, and do you think yourself abandoned? Listen to Paul's words, and you will see that suffering sorrow does not yet mean being abandoned.

Do you wish to wear a silk garment? Remember Paul's chains, and all this will seem more contemptible to you than the filthiest rag. Do you wish to put on gold ornaments? Bring Paul's chains to mind, and then all this will seem no better than an old rope.

Or have you wished to arrange your hair and appear beautiful? Think how pitiable Paul's appearance was in prison. Believe me, you will be inflamed with love for that beauty, while you will count this one utter ugliness. You will sigh deeply for those desirable chains.

Do you wish to adorn yourself with ointments, rouge, and anything else of this kind? Think of his tears. For three years, night and day, he wept without ceasing. Better adorn your cheeks with this adornment. These tears will give them radiant beauty.

I do not demand that you weep for others, though I would truly desire even this. Yet this is beyond your strength. At least I ask you to weep for your own sins.

Have you ordered your servant to be bound? Have you become angry and heated? Remember Paul's chains, and your anger will pass away at once. Only recall that we ourselves belong among those who are bound, not among those who bind. We belong among the contrite in heart, not among those who crush others.

Have you become too merry and burst into laughter? Bring his sobs to mind and sigh. These tears will make you incomparably more beautiful.

Have you seen people feasting and dancing? Remember his tears. What spring has sent forth as many streams as those eyes sent forth tears? He says, "Remember my tears," just as here he says, "my chains" (Acts 20:31).

He rightly said this to them when he summoned them from Ephesus to Miletus. He was speaking with pastors. From them he required that they gather the faithful. From these he required only that they endure dangers.

What spring would you compare with those tears? The one in Paradise, which watered the whole earth? There is no comparison between the two. This spring of tears watered souls, not the earth.

If someone showed us Paul weeping and sighing, would it not be far more pleasant to gaze at him than at a countless multitude adorned with shining crowns?

I do not speak only of you. Suppose someone brought from the theater, straight from the stage, a most unrestrained man, madly inflamed with carnal love. Suppose he showed him a pure maiden in the flower of her age.

She surpasses her companions in beauty of face, symmetry of form, and other graces. Her gaze is tender and languid, slightly deep, slightly wandering, moist, gentle, clear, smiling, full of timid modesty and great charm.

Her gaze is crowned above and below with dark lashes. She is, as people say, a maiden with soul. Her brow is bright, and beneath it her cheek has a rosy hue. She is graceful, as though carved from marble.

Then suppose someone showed me Paul in tears. I would leave her and hasten to look at him, because spiritual beauty would shine in his eyes.

That beauty carries away the souls of young men, inflames them, and burns them. This beauty, on the contrary, tames them. Whoever looks into this man's eyes makes the eye of his own soul beautiful.

He tames his belly, is filled with wisdom, becomes supremely compassionate, and can soften even a heart of adamant. By these tears the Church is watered. By them souls are brought to growth.

Even if there is fire, sensual and fleshly, these tears can quench it. These tears extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Let us remember his tears, and then everything in the present life will seem laughable to us.

Christ blessed these tears when He said, "Blessed are you who weep; blessed are you who mourn, for you shall laugh" (Lk 6:21). Isaiah shed these tears, and Jeremiah also shed them.

One said, "Leave me alone, I will weep bitterly" (Is 22:4). The other cried, "Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears" (Jer 9:1), as though the natural spring were not enough.

There is nothing sweeter than these tears. They are more pleasant than every laughter. Let those who shed tears know how much consolation is contained in them. We should not regard them as something unpleasant for us, but as most desirable.

Let us remember these tears and these chains, not so that others may sin, but so that we may feel contrition at the sight of their sins.

Perhaps these tears flowed partly because of the chains. He could not take pleasure in his chains, because of the death of those ruined men who had laid these chains upon him.

He felt grief even for them. He was the disciple of Him who wept over the Jewish priests, not because they were about to crucify Him, but because they themselves were perishing.

This Teacher does not act this way by Himself alone. He also urges others to the same thing, saying, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me" (Lk 23:28).

Those eyes saw Paradise. They saw the third heaven. Yet I call them blessed not so much because they saw these things, as because of those tears. Through them they beheld Christ, and this is truly blessedness.

He himself counts this a great honor when he says, "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" (1 Cor 9:1). Yet a still greater blessedness lies in this mourning.

Many were counted worthy of that vision. Christ even calls blessed those who were not counted worthy of it, when He says, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (Jn 20:29). But this, to weep for Christ, was granted to few.

If remaining here for Christ is more necessary for the salvation of others than departing and being with Him, then seeing Him is naturally not so important as grieving over others.

If even being in Gehenna for His sake is a greater good than being with Him, and being separated from Him for His sake is more desirable than being always with Him, then all the more did Paul desire to shed tears for Him.

This is what he meant when he said, "I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ" (Rom 9:3).

"For three years," he says, "I did not cease, night or day, to admonish every one of you with tears" (Acts 20:31). Why? Not because he feared dangers.

Rather, he was like one sitting beside a sick man. Not knowing the outcome of the illness, he weeps from strong affection for him, fearing that he may die.

So Paul, when he saw someone spiritually sick and could not bring him to understanding, began to weep. Christ also acted in this way, so that they might at least be ashamed before His tears.

For example, if someone sinned, He first corrected him. But if the one being corrected spat at Him and went away, then He wept, so that by this means He might draw him to Himself.

Let us remember these tears. Let us bring up our daughters and sons in this way, shedding tears when we see their bad conduct.

Let those who wish to be loved remember Paul's tears, and let them be contrite in heart. If you are considered happy, if you live in chambers, if you enjoy pleasures, remember these tears.

If you suffer grief, drive away tears by tears. He did not weep for the dead, but for the living who were going to destruction.

I will point out other tears to you as well. Timothy also shed tears, because he was Paul's disciple. Therefore Paul wrote to him, "Remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy" (2 Tim 1:4).

Many weep even from joy. Therefore tears can also be the result of joy, and of very great joy. After this, tears are surely not burdensome when they arise from such joy. Yet even these tears from worldly joy are not as sweet as those.

Listen to what the prophet says: "The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping" (Ps 6:9). Can there be any cases when tears are not useful, in prayer and in exhortations?

We blame them, but this is because we do not use them for the purpose for which they were given. When we exhort a brother living in sin, we should weep, if we truly grieve and sigh over him.

When we persuade someone and he does not listen, but goes to destruction, we must weep. These are rational tears. But if someone becomes poor, falls bodily sick, or dies, we should not weep, because these things are not worth tears.

Just as we blame laughter when it comes at the wrong time, so we blame tears when they come at the wrong time. The true dignity of each thing is revealed when it tends toward fitting actions. When it tends toward unfitting actions, the opposite is true.

Wine was given for gladness, not drunkenness. Bread was given for nourishment. Married life was given for the begetting of children. As these things are blamed because of abuses, so it is with tears.

Let there be such a law, that tears be shed only in prayer and in exhortations. Then see how attractive this thing would become. Nothing can wipe away sins so well as tears.

Even the bodily appearance itself becomes attractive through tears. They dispose the beholder to mercy and give a person an appearance that inspires reverence in us.

Nothing moves us so powerfully as eyes shedding tears. This is our noblest and most beautiful member. It is the organ of the soul. They touch us so deeply that it is as though we saw the soul itself in tears.

All this is said to you with a purpose. It is so that you may not attend wedding revelries, dances, and satanic gatherings.

See what the devil has devised. Since women are kept away by nature from the stage and from the obscenities that occur there, he has brought theatrical filth into the woman's dwelling. I speak of soft and corrupt women.

The law of marriage has brought this wound with it. Or rather, not marriage. May it not be! Our carelessness has brought it.

What are you doing, man? You yourself do not know what you are doing. A wife is appointed for a chaste life and for bearing children. Why, then, are corrupt women there?

You say, "So that there may be more merriment." Is this not madness? You insult the bride. You insult those invited. If they find pleasure in these things, that is an insult.

If it gives a little splendor to watch the disorder of corrupt women, why do you drag the bride there also, so that she too may look on?

The greeting by my own hand, Paul's. Remember my bonds. That is, remember me, who am in bonds and condemned. The best consolation for them is to remember Paul the prisoner in every sorrow.

Grace be with you all. Amen. When grace is present with you, whether you have sorrows or endure bonds, nothing of this kind will overcome you, since being bound is also a work of grace. For Luke says: They returned from prison rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ; cf. Acts 5:41. Do you see that to be dishonored means to be counted worthy? Indeed, this is a great dignity.

The greeting by my own hand, Paul's. The Apostle added this, thereby making known that he boldly commands them not to keep the law.

Remember my bonds, that is, emulate and imitate me, and patiently endure the sorrows that come upon you. Grace be with you. Amen.

We too must always remember these bonds, gain profit from this remembrance, and pray that we not fall into temptation. But if this happens to us, we must love the divine economy, show our own courage, and call upon the grace of God for help. For in this way it will be possible to struggle, to conquer, and to be counted worthy of praises in Christ. With Him belong glory and majesty to the Father, together with the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

"Remember my chains," that is, emulate and imitate me, and patiently endure the afflictions that meet you, as Theodoret says.

At the conclusion there first come the notices which the Apostle entrusts Tychicus and Onesimus to convey to the Colossians (Col 4:7-9). Then come greetings or salutations from Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica; Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, not the evangelist; Jesus called Justus, who had once been chosen as a candidate for the number of the twelve Apostles in place of the fallen Judas; Epaphras, the head of the Phrygian churches; Luke the physician, the evangelist; Demas, who later left Paul (2 Tim 4:10). A greeting is also sent to the brethren in Laodicea and to Nymphas the presbyter, with the church in his house (Col 4:10-15).

The Apostle speaks of writing the greeting with his own hand in order to confirm the authenticity of this Epistle. In addition, according to St. John Chrysostom's observation, this was a sign of his special closeness. Seeing his handwriting, the Colossians felt the breath of Paul's special affection for them, and they themselves became especially disposed toward him and toward what was written in the Epistle.

On his own behalf the Apostle commands them to greet the Laodicean Christians, the neighbors of the Colossians, and especially the Laodicean Nymphas. In his house, κατ’ οικον αυτού, there was a church, or such a place for divine worship as there was in the house of Philemon (Phlm 1:2). The Apostle commands that his Epistle be sent for reading in Laodicea, which was threatened by the same danger from false teachers as the Colossian church. In turn, the Colossians must read the letter from Laodicea, την εκ Λαοδικείας.

The greeting by my own hand, Paul's. This was the customary note which St. Paul used in order to prevent attempts to compose forged Epistles under his name. Nevertheless, for the Colossians it could also have the meaning of a certain special affection from St. Paul. In paraphrase of St. Chrysostom, This is a sign of special closeness and sincere fellowship. Seeing his handwriting, they felt the breath of St. Paul's special affection for them, and they themselves became especially disposed toward him and toward what was written in the Epistle.