Homily 6 — Colossians 2, verses 6 to 15

“As, then, you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in your faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” [a]

Once again he takes hold of them in advance with their own testimony, saying, “As, then, you received.” We are adding nothing strange, he says, and neither are you. “Walk in him,” for he is the Way that leads to the Father — not in the angels, for that way does not lead there. “Rooted,” that is, fixed; not going this way one moment and that way the next, but “rooted”; and what is rooted can never be moved. Notice how fitting the words are that he uses.

“And built up,” that is, reaching up to him in thought. “And established” in him, that is, holding on to him, built as on a foundation. He shows that they had fallen down, for the word “built” carries that force. For faith really is a building, and it needs both a strong foundation and a sound structure. If someone does not build on a secure foundation, the building will shake; and even if he does, if the structure is not firm, it will not stand.

“Just as you were taught.” Again the word “as.” “Abounding,” he says, “in thanksgiving.” For this is the mark of people who are rightly disposed: not simply to give thanks, I say, but to do it in great abundance — more than you were taught, if possible — and with great eagerness.

Verse 8: “Take care that there is no one who carries you off as plunder.” Do you see how he shows the man to be a thief, an outsider, one who slips in quietly? He has already pictured him as getting in. [c]

“Take care.” And “carries you off as plunder” is well said. When someone digs a mound away from underneath, there may be no sign you can see, and yet little by little it settles. So you too must take care; for this is his chief aim, not even to let himself be noticed. It is as if someone were stealing every day, and the owner of the house were told, “Watch out, in case there is someone,” and were shown the way he comes in — “this way,” as we might say, “through this room.” In the same way Paul says, “through philosophy.”

Then, because the word “philosophy” has an air of dignity, he added, “and empty deceit.” For there is also a good deceit, by which many have been deceived, which ought not even to be called deceit at all. Jeremiah speaks of it: “O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived” (Jeremiah 20, verse 7). A deceit like that ought not to be called deceit at all. Jacob also deceived his father; but that was not deceit, it was an arrangement.

“Through philosophy,” he says, “and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.” Now he sets out to rebuke their keeping of particular days. By “the elements of the world” he means the sun and the moon, as he also said in the letter to the Galatians: “How is it that you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements?” (Galatians 4, verse 9). And he did not say “the keeping of days,” but spoke in general of the present world, to show how worthless it is; for if the present world is nothing, its elements are much more so. [e]

He first showed how great the benefits and kindnesses were that they had received, and only then brings his accusation, to show how much more serious it is and to convict his hearers. The prophets do the same. They always point out the benefits first, and then they make the accusation weigh more heavily. So Isaiah says, “I have fathered children and lifted them high, but they have rejected me” (Isaiah 1, verse 2, in the Greek Old Testament); and again, “O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you, or how have I wearied you?” (Micah 6, verse 3). And David does the same, when he says, “I heard you in the hidden place of the storm” (Psalm 81, verse 7, in the Greek Old Testament); and again, “Open your mouth, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81, verse 10). You will find it the same everywhere.

Indeed, it would be our plain duty not to be persuaded by these people even if they said something to the point. But as it is, even setting every obligation aside, we ought to shun those things. “And not according to Christ,” he says. Even if the matter were only half done, so that you could serve both the one and the other, you still ought not to do it. But as it is, he does not let you be “according to Christ.” Those things draw you away from him. [g]

First he shook the observances of the Greeks to pieces; next he overthrows the Jewish ones as well. Both Greeks and Jews kept many observances — the Greeks because of their philosophy, the Jews because of the law. So he goes first after those against whom the heavier charge lay. How is it “not according to Christ”?

Verses 9 and 10: “For in him dwells all the fullness of deity bodily; and in him you are made full, who is the head of all rulers and authorities.”

Notice how, while he is accusing the one party, he runs the other through as well, by giving the answer first and the objection afterward. An answer given this way is not suspected, and the hearer accepts it all the more readily because the speaker is not making it his aim. If he were, the hearer would make a point of not coming off the loser; but here that does not happen.

“For in him dwells” — that is, God dwells in him. But so that you would not think he is shut in, as in a body, he says, “All the fullness of deity bodily; and you are made full in him.” Others say he means the church, filled by his deity, as he says elsewhere, “of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1, verse 23), and that “bodily” here means as the body is in the head. How is it, then, that he did not add, “which is the church”?

Others again say that he speaks with reference to the Father when he says that the fullness of deity dwells in him — but they are wrong. First, because “to dwell” cannot strictly be said of God. Next, because the “fullness” is not what receives; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it” (Psalm 24, verse 1); and again the apostle says, “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11, verse 25). By “fullness” is meant “the whole.” Then what did the word “bodily” mean? “As in a head.” But why does he say the same thing over again?

“And you are made full in him.” What, then, does this mean? That you have nothing less than he has. As it dwelt in him, so it dwells in you as well. For Paul is always straining to bring us close to Christ, as when he says, “He raised us up with him, and made us sit with him” (Ephesians 2, verse 6); and, “If we endure, we will also reign with him” (Second Timothy 2, verse 12); and, “How will he not also with him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8, verse 32); and when he calls us “fellow heirs” (Ephesians 3, verse 6). [j]

Then, as to his rank: he “is the head of all rulers and authorities.” He who is above all, the Cause — is he not of one being with the Father? Then he has added the benefit in a marvelous way, far more marvelous than in the letter to the Romans. There he says, “circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter” (Romans 2, verse 29); but here, in Christ.

Verse 11: “In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.”

See how close he has now come to the matter itself. He says, “In the stripping off” — putting it away altogether, not merely putting it off. “The body of sins”: he means the old life. He keeps coming back to this in different ways, as he said above, “Who rescued us from the power of darkness,” and “reconciled us, who were estranged,” so that we would be “holy and without blemish” (Colossians 1, verses 13 and 21). [k]

No longer, he says, is circumcision done with the knife, but in Christ himself. No hand gives this circumcision, as happens there, but the Spirit. It does not circumcise a part, but the whole person. In both cases it is the body; but in the one it is circumcised in the flesh, in the other spiritually. Yet not as the Jews are, for you have not put off flesh, but sins. When and where? In baptism. And what he calls circumcision, he goes on to call burial as well.

Notice how he passes on once more to the subject of right living: “of the sins,” he says, “of the flesh” — the things they had done in the flesh. He is speaking of something greater than circumcision. They did not merely cast away what was cut from them; they destroyed it, they did away with it entirely.

Verse 12: “Buried with him,” he says, “in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

But it is not burial only; see what he says: “in which you were also raised with him, through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” He did well to say “through faith,” for it is all a matter of faith. You believed that God is able to raise, and so you were raised. Then notice also how worthy of belief he is: “who raised him,” he says, “from the dead.” Here he points to the resurrection. “And you, who were once dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh — you, I say, he made alive together with him.” You lay under sentence of death. But even though you died, it was a death that did you good. Notice how he again shows what they deserved, in the words he adds next:

Verses 13, 14 and 15: “Having forgiven us all our trespasses, having wiped out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was hostile to us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Having stripped off from himself the rulers and the authorities, he made a public show of them, triumphing over them in it.”

“Having forgiven us,” he says, “all our trespasses” — those that produced that deadness. What then? Did he let them remain? No, he wiped them out as well; he did not merely scratch them out, but wiped them out so that they could not be seen. “In doctrines,” he says. What doctrines? The faith. It is enough to believe. He has not set works against works, but works against faith. And what next? Wiping out goes further than forgiving. Again he says, “And he has taken it out of the way.” Even then he did not keep it; he tore it right in two, “nailing it to his cross.” “Having stripped off from himself the rulers and the authorities, he made a public show of them, triumphing over them in it.” Nowhere has he spoken in such lofty terms. [l]

Do you see how earnest he was that the bond should be done away with? We were all under sin and punishment. He himself, by suffering punishment, did away with both the sin and the punishment, and he was punished on the cross. So to the cross he fastened it; as one who had the power, he tore it in pieces.

What bond? He means either the one they made when they said to Moses, “All that God has said we will do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24, verse 3); or, if not that, then this: that we owe God obedience. Or, if not this, he means that the devil held it in his possession — the bond God drew up for Adam when he said, “In the day you eat of the tree, you will die” (Genesis 2, verse 17). This is the bond, then, that the devil held in his possession. And Christ did not hand it over to us; he tore it in two himself, as one does who cancels a debt gladly.

“Having stripped off from himself the rulers and the authorities.” He means the devil’s powers. Because human nature had clothed itself in them, or because they had, so to speak, a hold on it, when he became man he stripped that hold away from himself. What does “he made a public show of them” mean? It is well said, for never yet was the devil in so shameful a plight. Expecting to get him, he lost even those he had; and when that body was nailed to the cross, the dead arose. There death received his wound, struck his deathblow by a dead body. It was like an athlete who thinks he has landed a blow on his opponent and is himself caught in a deadly hold. So Christ truly shows that to die with confidence is the devil’s shame. [n]

The devil would have done everything to persuade people that he did not die, if he had had the power. For every age that followed has been clear proof of his resurrection; but of his death, no time except the time when it happened could ever give proof. That is why he died publicly, in the sight of everyone, but did not rise publicly, knowing that the time to come would bear witness to the truth. That the serpent should be slain up high on the cross while the world looked on — that is the marvel.

For what did the devil not do to have him die in secret? Listen to Pilate saying, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no fault in him” (John 19, verse 6), and resisting them in a thousand ways. And again the Jews said to him, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27, verse 40). Then, when he had received a mortal wound and did not come down, for this reason he was also laid in the grave. It was in his power to rise at once; but he did not, so that the fact might be believed.

When a person dies in private, one can put it down to a fainting fit; but here even that is impossible. The soldiers did not break his legs as they did the others’, so that it would be made plain that he was dead. The men who buried the body are known; and that is also why the Jews themselves sealed the stone together with the soldiers. What was attended to above all was this very thing: that it should not be left in obscurity. And the witnesses to it come from his enemies, from the Jews. Listen to them saying to Pilate, “That deceiver said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command, therefore, that the tomb…” (Matthew 27, verses 63 and 64) be guarded by the soldiers. And so it was done, with them sealing it as well. Listen to them saying to the apostles even afterward, “You mean to bring this man’s blood on us” (Acts 5, verse 28).

He did not let even the manner of his cross be put to shame. For since the angels have suffered nothing like it, he does everything for this purpose, showing that his death accomplished a mighty work. There was, so to speak, a single combat. Death wounded Christ; but Christ, once wounded, afterward killed death. The one who seemed to be immortal was destroyed by a mortal body, and the whole world saw it. And what is truly wonderful is that he did not hand this task over to anyone else. But in turn a second bond was made, of a different kind from the first.

So let us beware that we are not condemned by this, after saying, “I renounce Satan, and I enlist with you, O Christ.” And yet this should not really be called a bond, but a covenant. A bond is the document by which a person is held liable for debts; but this is a covenant. It carries no penalty, and it does not say, “If this is done,” or “If this is not done.” What Moses said when he sprinkled the blood of the covenant — by this God too has promised eternal life. All this is a covenant. There it was slave with master; here it is friend with friend. There it is said, “In the day that you eat of it you will die” (Genesis 2, verse 17) — an immediate threat; but here there is nothing of the kind. [p]

God comes, and here there is nakedness, and there was nakedness there too. But there, the one who had sinned was stripped naked because he sinned; here a person is stripped naked so that he may be set free. Then, man put off the glory he had; now he puts off the old self, and before going up to the contest he takes it off as easily as his clothes. He is anointed like wrestlers about to enter the contest. For he is born at once — as that first man was, not little by little, but immediately.

He is anointed, not as the priests of old were, on the head alone, but in fuller measure. The priest was anointed on the head, the right ear, and the hand (Leviticus 8, verses 23 and 24), to rouse him to obedience and to good works; but this man is anointed all over. For he does not come merely to be instructed, but to wrestle and to train; he is advanced to another creation. When a person confesses his belief in eternal life, he has confessed a second creation.

God took dust from the earth and formed man (Genesis 2, verse 7); but now it is no longer dust, but the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit he is formed, with the Spirit he is fitted together, just as Christ himself was in the womb of the Virgin. He did not say “in Paradise,” but “in heaven.” Do not suppose that because the material is earth, the thing is done on earth. He is taken away there, to heaven; there these things are carried out, in the midst of angels. God takes your soul up above; above he fits it together anew; he places you near the royal throne. He is formed in the water; he receives spirit instead of a soul.

And after he is formed, God brings to him not beasts, but demons and their prince, and says, “Tread on serpents and scorpions” (Luke 10, verse 19). He does not say, “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness” (Genesis 1, verse 26), but what? “He gives them the right to become sons of God; they were born,” he says, “of God” (John 1, verses 12 and 13). Then, so that you will not listen to the serpent, he at once teaches you to say, “I renounce you” — that is, “Whatever you say, I will not listen to you.” Then, so that he will not destroy you through others, the words follow: “and your parade, and your service, and your angels.” God has set him no longer to keep Paradise, but to have his citizenship in heaven. For as soon as he comes up, he says these words: “Our Father, who are in heaven… your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.”

The plain does not meet your eyes; you do not see a tree, or a spring. Instead, at once you take the Lord himself into you; you are mingled with his body; you are blended with that body which is on high, where the devil cannot come near. No woman is there for him to approach and deceive as the weaker; for it says, “There is neither female nor male” (Galatians 3, verse 28). If you do not go down to him, he will not have the power to come up where you are; for you are in heaven, and the devil cannot come near heaven. It has no tree of the knowledge of good and evil, only the tree of life. No longer will a woman be formed from your side; but we are all one, from the side of Christ.

If those whom men have anointed take no harm from serpents, neither will you take any harm at all, so long as you are anointed, so that you may be able to seize the serpent and strangle him, “to tread on serpents and scorpions” (Luke 10, verse 19). But as the gifts are great, so the punishment is great too. The one who has fallen from Paradise cannot live “opposite Paradise” (Genesis 3, verse 24), nor climb back up to the place from which we have fallen. What comes after this? Hell, and the worm that does not die.

But far be it that any of us should become liable to this punishment! Rather, by living virtuously, let us strive earnestly to do his will in everything. Let us become pleasing to God, so that we may be able both to escape the punishment and to obtain the eternal good things. May we all be counted worthy of them, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.