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Colossians 2:1
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Not Philosophy but Christ

1 For I want you to know what a great aconflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,  
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God,1 both of the Father and of Christ,  
3 ain whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  
4 Now this I say alest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.  
5 For athough I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing1 to see byour good order and the csteadfastness of your faith in Christ.  
6 aAs you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,  
7 arooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding1 in it with thanksgiving.  
8 Beware lest anyone1 cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to athe tradition of men, according to the bbasic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  
9 For ain Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead1 bodily;  
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the ahead of all principality and power.  

Not Legalism but Christ

11 In Him you were also acircumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by bputting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,  
12 aburied with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through bfaith in the working of God, cwho raised Him from the dead.  
Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
<< Colossians 1:29   Colossians 2:2 >>


Colossians 2:1

How greatly I strive (hlikon agwna exw). Literally, "how great a contest I am having." The old adjectival relative hlikov (like Latin quantus) is used for age or size in N.T. only here and James 3:5 (twice, how great, how small). It is an inward contest of anxiety like the merimna for all the churches (II Corinthians 11:28). Agwna carries on the metaphor of agwnizomenov in Colossians 1:29.

For them at Laodicea (twn en Laodikiai).

Supply uper as with uper umwn. Paul's concern extended beyond Colossae to Laodicea (Colossians 4:16) and to Hierapolis (Colossians 4:13), the three great cities in the Lycus Valley where Gnosticism was beginning to do harm. Laodicea is the church described as lukewarm in Revelation 3:14.

For as many as have not seen my face (osoi oux eorakan to proswpon mou). The phrase undoubtedly includes Hierapolis (Colossians 4:13), and a few late MSS. actually insert it here. Lightfoot suggests that Hierapolis had not yet been harmed by the Gnostics as much as Colossae and Laodicea. Perhaps so, but the language includes all in that whole region who have not seen Paul's face in the flesh (that is, in person, and not in picture). How precious a real picture of Paul would be to us today. The antecedent to osoi is not expressed and it would be toutwn after uper. The form eorakan (perfect active indicative of oraw instead of the usual ewrakasin has two peculiarities o in Paul's Epistles (I Corinthians 9:1) instead of w (see John 1:18 for ewraken) and -an by analogy in place of -asin, which short form is common in the papyri. See Luke 9:36 ewrakan.




Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Colossians 2:1:

Acts 19:1
1 Corinthians 16:19
Colossians 1:29
Colossians 4:13
1 Thessalonians 2:2
Revelation 1:4

 

<< Colossians 1:29   Colossians 2:2 >>

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