Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
You "giving thanks unto the Father." See on Colossians 1:10; this clause is connected with "that ye may be filled" (Colossians 1:9), and "that ye may walk" (Colossians 1:10). The connection is not, "We do not cease to pray for you (Colossians 1:9) giving thanks."
unto the Father—of Jesus Christ, and so our Father by adoption (Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:4-6).
which hath made us meet—Greek, "who made us meet." Not "is making us meet" by progressive growth in holiness; but once for all made us meet. It is not primarily the Spirit's work that is meant here, as the text is often used; but the Father's work in putting us by adoption, once for all, in a new standing, namely, that of children. The believers meant here were in different stages of progressive sanctification; but in respect to the meetness specified here, they all alike had it from the Father, in Christ His Son, being "complete in Him" (Colossians 2:10). Compare John 17:17; Judges 1:1, "sanctified by God the Father"; I Corinthians 1:30. Still, secondarily, this once-for-all meetness contains in it the germ of sanctification, afterwards developed progressively in the life by the Father's Spirit in the believer. The Christian life of heavenliness is the first stage of heaven itself. There must, and will be, a personal meetness for heaven, where there is a judicial meetness.
to be partakers, etc.—Greek, "for the (or 'our') portion of the inheritance (Acts 20:32; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:11) of the saints in light." "Light" begins in the believer here, descending from "the Father of lights" by Jesus, "the true light," and is perfected in the kingdom of light, which includes knowledge, purity, love, and joy. It is contrasted here with the "darkness" of the unconverted state (Colossians 1:13; compare I Peter 2:9).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Colossians 1:12:
Colossians 1:10
Jude 1:1
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