Colossians by Gordon H. Clark

Author:Gordon H. Clark [Clark, Gordon H.]
Format: epub
Publisher: The Trinity Foundation
Published: 2015-05-04T04:00:00+00:00

2:2

…in order that their hearts may be confirmed, being united in love and to all the wealth of the full conviction of the understanding, to knowledge of the secret of God [that is?] of Christ…

The King James translation says, “that their hearts might be comforted.” This English may have been appropriate in 1611, but in 1978 it gives the wrong sense. The Latin etymology of comfort goes back to the word for strength, as with a military fort. The Greek word can mean: to summon someone to your aid, to urge, exhort, encourage; implore or entreat; cheer up, or comfort. There is no indication that the Colossians needed cheering up: They, like us all, needed to be encouraged and strengthened. If anyone say that hearts need cheering up, while only minds and especially wills need strengthening, let it be remembered, first, that in Scripture it is the heart that does the thinking and willing; second, that Paul is teaching doctrine and refuting error; and, third, that he has just referred to straining and agonizing. A person struggling against enemies might want some cheering up, but his real need is strength. Moule suggests “stiffened to boldness.” Confirmation in the truth is the appropriate idea in this passage.

The reason Paul says “their hearts” instead of “your hearts,” is that he has just mentioned the Laodiceans and whoever has never seen his face.

In the agony of battle, union is highly desirable. One admires Athanasius contra mundum and the Sunday School children sing, “Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone.” Excellent, and in these two and other instances, necessary. But union with others is better. Carson says it well:

In view of the debilitating effect of false teaching upon the spiritual life…this inner strengthening was a primary need…. Error is divisive. It breaks up the unity of the body of believers. Thus the unifying power of a God-given love for Christ and for one another will be a means of resisting this spiritual corrosion from without.

In view of contemporary misuse of the concept of love, it is well also to quote Daniel, Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India (1846): “We must not confound this blessed grace of love with indifference to truth….”

The next word, and, introducing a purpose-clause, is hard to construe. The difficulty consists in relating the verb may be strengthened, the participle being united, plus the clause and to all wealth. One may explain it by making the participle parenthetical: “that their hearts (being united) may be strengthened for the purpose of receiving all wealth.” However, the parenthesizing of being united seems a bit artificial, although participles lend themselves so; and it fails to account for the following conjunction. For a second possibility one may make united and to all wealth coordinate, both dependent on the verb. This would make it: “that you may be strengthened by being united and to all wealth.” The difficulty here is that of a conjunction connecting a participle and a clause which contains no verbal form at all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.