Ver. 11. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power.—Lit. “with all power made powerful,” etc. The two words representing “might” and “power” have become familiar in “dynamite” and the termination of “auto-crat”; the one indicating stored-up energy; the other victorious or ruling force. Patience and longsuffering.—the first word indicates the attitude of an unfainting mind when things go wrong; the second the quiet endurance under irritation from others, the being “not soon angry.”

Ver. 12. Made us meet.—Duly qualified us, gave us competence. Just as a man needs to be a qualified practitioner of medicine or the law, so these Colossians are recognised as fit and proper persons for participation in the kingdom of light.

Ver. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.—The metaphor commenced in the previous verse is carried on here. The settlement in the land flowing with milk and honey is preceded by deliverance with a high hand from the house of bondage—the land of thick darkness. And hath translated us.—The same word by which the Jewish historian describes the carrying over of the Israelites to Assyria by Tiglath-Pileser. The apostle regards the deliverance, so far as the Deliverer is concerned, as a thing accomplished. His dear Son.—The A.V. margin has become the R.V. text, “The Son of His love.” We do not again find this expression; but as there is “no darkness at all” in God, who “is love,” so His Son, into whose kingdom we come, reveals the love of the Father.

Ver. 14. In whom we have redemption.—A release effected in consideration of a ransom. See on the verse Eph. i. 7. The forgiveness of our sins—lit. “the dismissal of our sins.”

Ver. 15. Who is the image of the invisible God.—In 2 Cor. iv. 4 St. Paul had so named Christ. “Beyond the very obvious notion of likeness, the word for image involves the idea of representation and manifestation” (Lightfoot). Man is said to be the image of God (1 Cor. xi. 7), and to have been created in the image of God, as an image on a coin may represent Cæsar, even though unrecognisable almost. Christ is “the very image” (Heb. i. 3) of God, able to say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Firstborn of every creature.—“Not that He is included as part of the creation, but that the relation of the whole creation to Him is determined by the fact that He is the ‘firstborn of all creation’ (R.V.), so that without Him creation could not be” (Cremer). The main ideas involved in the word are (1) priority to all creation; (2) sovereignty over all creation (Lightfoot).

Ver. 16. Thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.—That Paul believed in a heavenly hierarchy can scarcely be doubted; but this letter shows that in Colossæ it had become an elaborate superstition.

Ver. 18. And He is the head of the body, the Church.—As He held priority of all creation, so also His is the name above every name in the new creation. The firstborn from the dead.—The cardinal point of the apostle’s faith.

Ver. 19. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.—The great question on this verse is—seeing that “the Father” has been added—what is the nominative to the word rendered “it pleased”? At least three are possible: (1) “the Father,” as A.V., R.V., and many commentators; (2) “all the fulness,” etc.; and (3) “the Son was pleased.” Lightfoot urges that, as (2) would be an anachronism, and (3) a hopeless confusion of the theology, “the Father was well pleased” seems to be the best rendering.

Ver. 20. To reconcile all things unto Himself.—The word “reconcile” is meant to indicate the restoration of a lost friendship; and re-establishment of peaceful relations. It is a good specimen of the care with which St. Paul’s advanced expressions are selected.

Ver. 21. You, that were sometime alienated.—Does not mean, of course, occasionally alienated, but as the R.V. gives it, “being in time past alienated”—up to the time of the reconciliation always estranged. Enemies in your mind by wicked works.—The most interesting question here is whether God is reconciled to the sinner or only the sinner to God. Is “enemies” to mean “hostile” or “hateful”? Lightfoot says, “It is the mind of man, not the mind of God, which must undergo a change that a reunion may be effected.”