Homilies on Colossians 6

'As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and confirmed in the faith, as you were taught, abounding therein in thanksgiving.'

Again he takes hold of them beforehand by their own testimony, saying, 'As therefore you received.'

'We are bringing in nothing strange,' he says;

'for He Himself is the way that leads to the Father;'

'this way does not lead elsewhere.'

'Not at one time this way and at another that, but rooted;'

and that which is rooted could never be removed.

Behold how he uses words with precise force.

'And built up,' he says;

that is, reaching up to Him in mind.

'And confirmed in Him;'

that is, holding Him fast, and being built up as upon a foundation.

He shows that they had fallen;

for the word 'Being built up' makes this plain.

For faith is truly a building, and it needs both a strong foundation and a secure structure.

For if one does not build upon security, it is shaken;

and if upon security, and it does not stand firm, it no longer stands.

Again the word 'As' is indicative of his saying nothing new.

'Abounding,' he says, 'therein in thanksgiving.'

I do not say merely to give thanks, but to do so with great fullness of presence, more than you were taught, and, if it be possible, with much earnest zeal.

'Beware lest there be anyone who shall carry you away as spoil.'

Do you see how he showed him to be a thief, and an alien, and one who steals in stealthily? For he has already represented him as entering in.

And well did he say, 'Carrying away as spoil.'

Just as when a man undermines a mound from below, he gives no perception of it, yet it sinks down;

for this is that one's very work — to give no perception at all.

Then, since the notion of philosophy seems to be something venerable, he added, 'And vain deceit.'

For there is also a good deceit, such as many have been deceived with, which one ought not even to call deceit;

concerning which Jeremiah speaks:

'You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived.'

For such a thing ought not even to be called deceit;

since Jacob also deceived his father, yet it was not deceit, but a dispensation.

'Through philosophy,' he says, 'and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.'

For the present he touches upon the reproof of the observance of days, calling the sun and moon 'rudiments of the world,' just as he also said in the Epistle to the Galatians:

'How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly rudiments?' And he did not say 'observances of days,' but 'through the whole present world,' that he might show their worthlessness;

for if the world is nothing, much more also are its rudiments.

Having therefore first shown how many benefits they had received, how many good things had been done to them, then he brings on the accusation, that he may make it appear the greater, and may win over his hearers.

This the prophets also always do;

they first display the benefits, and then heighten the accusations, just as Isaiah says:

'I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have rejected me;'

and again, 'My people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you, or in what have I troubled you?' And David also, as when he says:

'I heard you in the secret place of the storm;'

and again, 'Open your mouth, and I will fill it.'

And everywhere you will find it thus.

Most certainly then, even if they were saying anything, one ought not to have been persuaded;

but as it is, even apart from the benefits, one ought to flee those things.

'And not after Christ,' he says.

For most certainly, even if it were thus by halves, so that one could serve both this and that, not even so ought it to be;

but as it is, it does not permit you to be after Christ at all.

But having first shaken the Greek observances, then he also does away with the Jewish ones.

For both Greeks and Jews observed many things, but the former from philosophy, the latter from the law.

First then he approaches these, where the accusation is greater.

How 'not after Christ'? 'Because in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.'

See how in the accusation of these he undermines that other point, first setting down the solution, and then the objection.

For such a solution is unsuspected, and the hearer receives it the more readily, as if the speaker were not intent upon this very thing.

For there indeed one even contends not to be worsted, but here he does not.

That is, that God dwells in him.

But that you may not suppose him to be shut up, as in a body, he says:

'All the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him.'

Others say that he calls the Church filled by his Godhead, just as elsewhere he says:

'Of him who fills all in all;'

and the word 'bodily' here means as a body in the head.

How is it then that he did not add, which is the Church? But some say he is speaking concerning the Father, namely that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him;

first, because 'to dwell' is not properly said of God;

secondly, because the fullness is not that which receives;

for 'the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof;'

and again the Apostle says, 'Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.'

Then, what does 'bodily' intend to signify? As in a head.

But why again does he say the same thing, 'And you are complete in him'? What then is it? That you have nothing less than he;

just as he dwelt in that one, so also in you.

For Paul always strives to bring us near to Christ, as when he says:

'He raised us up together and made us sit together;'

and, 'If we endure, we shall also reign together with him;'

and, 'How shall he not also with him freely give us all things?' And he calls us joint-heirs.

'And he is the head of all principality and power.'

He who is above all, the cause — is he not of the same substance? Then he brings on the matter of the benefit in a wonderful way, and far more wonderfully than that in the Epistle to the Romans.

For there indeed he says, 'Circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter;'

'In whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.'

See how near he comes to the matter.

Continually he turns these things over, and in various ways, just as above he was saying:

'Who delivered us from the power of darkness, and reconciled us who were alienated, that we should be holy and blameless.'

'No longer,' he says, 'is the circumcision with a knife, but in Christ himself;'

for it is not a hand that inflicts this circumcision, as there, but the Spirit; and it circumcises not a part, but the whole man.

A body is this, and a body is that also;

but the one is circumcised in the flesh, the other spiritually;

for you put off not flesh, but sins.

When, and where? In baptism.

And what he calls circumcision, he again calls a burial.

See how again he passes over to the ordinances.

'Of the sins,' he says, 'those of the flesh.'

That is to say, the things which they did in the flesh.

He speaks of something greater than circumcision;

for they did not cast away what was circumcised, but they destroyed it, they did away with it.

Having been buried together with Him, he says, in baptism, in which also you were raised together through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead.

But it is not a tomb only;

In which also you were raised together through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead.

You believed that God is able to raise, and so you were raised.

Then also that which makes it worthy of belief: 'Of Him who raised Him,' he says, 'from the dead.'

Already he points to the resurrection;

And you, being once dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made alive together with Him.

For you lay under the sentence of death.

But if indeed you died, yet it was not simply so, but a death that was profitable.

See how again he shows of what things they were worthy, by what he adds;

Having freely forgiven us all our trespasses.

Having blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; having stripped off the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

'Having freely forgiven us,' he says, 'all our trespasses.'

What kind? Those which produced the deadness.

And what then? Did He allow them to remain? No, but He also blotted them out;

He did not merely score them through, but blotted them out, so that they should not even appear.

By what kind of ordinances? By faith.

It was not works to works, but works that He set alongside faith.

And what after this? An intensifying of the forgiveness, namely the blotting out once more.

'And He has taken it,' he says, 'out of the way.'

And not even so did He keep it safe, but He also tore it in pieces, 'having nailed it to the cross.'

Having stripped off the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Nowhere did he speak in so grand a voice.

Do you see how great an earnestness he showed for the abolishing of the handwriting? As if to say: We were all under sin and punishment;

He, by being punished, loosed both the sin and the punishment;

There, then, He fastened it;

Then, as having authority, He thereafter tore it in pieces.

What handwriting? Either he means this, which they said to Moses, that 'All that God has spoken we will do, and we will hearken';

or if not this, then that we owe obedience to God;

or if not this, then that the devil held the handwriting which God made with Adam, when He said:

'In the day that you eat of the tree, you shall die.'

This handwriting, then, the devil held.

And Christ did not give it to us, but He Himself tore it up, which is the act of one who forgives with joy.

Having stripped off the principalities and the powers.

He means the diabolical powers;

either because human nature had been clothed with them, or because they held these as a kind of handle, when He became man He stripped off the handle.

For never was the devil so put to shame.

For expecting to hold Him, he lost even those whom he had; and while the body was being nailed, the dead were rising.

There the devil received his wound, receiving the mortal blow from a dead body.

And just as a wrestler, thinking he has thrown his opponent, himself receives from him a mortal blow;

so indeed this one too shows that to die with boldness is the disgrace of the devil.

For that one would have done all things, if only he had been able, so as to persuade men that He had not died.

For since all the time thereafter was a proof of the resurrection, but of the death, if that had not taken place, there would have been no other occasion, for this reason He died publicly with all beholding, but rose not publicly, knowing that the time afterward would bear witness.

For this is the marvel—that, while the world looked on, the serpent was slain aloft upon the tree.

And what indeed did the devil not do, that He might die unnoticed? Hear Pilate saying:

'Take Him yourselves, and crucify Him;

for I find no fault in Him.'

And again the Jews said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.'

Since, then, He received the mortal blow and did not come down, for this reason He was also given over to burial;

since it was possible for Him to rise immediately, but that the matter might be believed.

And yet in private deaths one may allege faintheartedness;

For indeed the soldiers did not break His legs, as they did the others', that it might be made manifest that He had died.

And manifest are those who buried the body;

for this reason the Jews themselves also seal the stone together with the soldiers.

For that which was most of all sought after was this—that it should not be obscured.

And the witnesses are from the enemies, from the Jews.

Hear them saying to Pilate:

'That deceiver said, while yet living:

After three days I rise again.'

'Command therefore that the tomb be guarded by the soldiers.'

And with them sealing it, this came to pass.

And hear them saying this also afterward to the apostles:

'Do you intend to bring upon us the blood of this man?'

The very manner of the cross He did not permit to be ashamed of.

For since the angels have suffered nothing of this kind, on this account He does all things for its sake, showing that death accomplished something great;

for it became as it were a single combat.

Death smote Christ, but Christ, having been smitten, afterward slew him;

He who was thought to be immortal was undone in a dead body;

and the whole world beheld this.

And what is truly marvellous, He did not entrust this to another;

but there came into being yet another handwriting, not such as the former one.

See, then, that we be not caught by this, after having said:

'I renounce Satan, and I join myself to Thee, O Christ.'

Or rather, this should not be called a handwriting, but a covenant.

For it is a handwriting when someone is held liable for debts;

it carries no penalty, nor does it say:

Moses, who sprinkled the blood of the covenant, spoke thus, and God promised eternal life.

All these things constitute a covenant.

There it was a servant toward a master; here it is a friend toward a friend.

There it says, 'In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die';

but here there is nothing of the sort.

Here there is nakedness, and there also there was nakedness;

but there he was stripped naked because he had sinned, since he sinned;

here, on the contrary, one is stripped naked in order to be set free.

That first man then put off the glory which he had;

this one now puts off the old man, and even before he goes in, so easily does he put it off, as one puts off a garment.

He is anointed, like athletes about to step into the arena.

For he is born at once, and not as that first man, little by little, but immediately;

not as the priests of old anointed the head only, but rather to a greater degree.

For that one anointed the head, the right ear, the hand, that he might rouse him both to obedience and to good works;

For he comes not only to be taught, but also to contend, and being exercised he is led up into another creation.

For when he confesses unto eternal life, he has confessed another creation.

He took dust from the earth, and formed the man;

but henceforth it is no longer dust, but the Holy Spirit;

with this he is formed, with this he is fashioned, even as He Himself was in the womb of the Virgin.

He said not, 'in paradise,' but 'in heaven.'

For do not, because earth lies beneath, suppose that you are on earth;

he has been translated there, to heaven;

there these things come to pass in the midst of angels;

on high God receives your soul, on high He re-fashions it, and sets you beside the royal throne.

He is formed in the water, and receives a spirit in exchange for a soul.

And after he is formed, He does not lead wild beasts to him, but—

demons and their chief, and says, 'Tread upon serpents and scorpions.'

He says not, 'Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness';

but what? He gives to them to become sons of God, who were born not of blood, but, He says, of God.

Then, that you may not listen to the serpent, immediately He teaches you to say—

which is to say, 'Whatever you may say, I will not listen to you.'

Then, that he may not ensnare you through others, He says, 'and thy pomp and thy service and thine angels.'

He set him no longer to guard paradise, but to live as a citizen in heaven.

For immediately upon ascending, he utters these words:

'Our Father who art in the heavens, Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also upon the earth.'

The infant does not fall upon its face; you behold no tree nor spring, but you straightway embrace the Master Himself, you are mingled with the body, you are blended with the body that lies above, where the devil cannot approach.

There is no woman, that he may approach and deceive her as the weaker;

'For there is neither female nor male,' he says.

Unless you go down to him, he will not be able to set foot where you are;

for you are in heaven, and heaven is untrodden by the devil.

It has no tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the tree of life alone.

No longer is woman from your side, but we are all one from the side of Christ.

For if those anointed by men suffer nothing from serpents, neither will you suffer anything, so long as you remain anointed, that you may be able to hold the serpent fast and to strangle it, and to tread upon serpents and scorpions.

But even as the gifts are great, so also is the punishment great for us;

it is not possible for one who has fallen from paradise to dwell over against paradise, nor to return whence we fell.

But what comes after these things? Gehenna, and the worm that never ends.

But God forbid that any of us should become liable to this punishment;

rather, living virtuously, let us be earnest to accomplish the things that are pleasing to Him;

let us be well-pleasing to God, that we may be able both to be delivered from punishment, and to attain the eternal good things, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, and honour to the Father, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.