Colossians 1 Commentary - The Biblical Illusrator

Verse 1-2

Verses 1-5

Colossians 1:1-5

Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

The assertion of St. Paul that the afflictions of the faithful “work together for good” is verified by constant experience (Romans 8:28; Psalms 119:71). As roses, the sweetest and fairest flowers, grow on a thorny stock, so from the piercing afflictions of the believer spring sweet and salutary examples. The imprisonment of St. Paul has done the Church more good than the prosperity of the rest of the faithful of that age.

I. The inscription of the Epistle. We now inscribe letters with the names of those to whom we write at the beginning, and our own names at the end. Formerly it was the custom to put both at the head as here.

1. The writers. Paul--

(a) to have seen Christ alive after His death;

(b) to have received the commission direct from Christ;

(c) to enjoy an extraordinary measure of the Holy Spirit for miracles and preaching. Whence it appears how illogical they are that attribute the glory of apostleship to the Pope, who possesses none of these qualifications.

(a) to maintain his honour against the calumnies of seducers, who alleged that he had not lived in Christ’s day;

(b) to establish his liberty to write to the Colossians and prove to them their duty.

2. The readers.

II. The congratulation (verses 3-5).

1. The thanks-giving is for--

three particulars which comprise all human felicity. The part which Paul takes in their happiness, teaches us to interest ourselves in the affairs of our brethren, and rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep--not, as many of the world, the reverse. And the joy that we have in the good of others should be elevated to God its only source.

2. It is not enough to render thanks for our brethren, we must pray for them. Under the Old Testament the Divine appellation was “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” the patriarchs with whom He contracted the old covenant, and to whom He promised the new; under the New, “The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” by whom He has abolished the old covenant and accomplished the new.

3. The true matter of our rejoicings for others is not that God has given them health, riches, fame, etc., but faith and love, which comprise the whole kingdom of God, the one its beginning, the other its accomplishment, and are inseparable the one from the other, the one being the root, the other the fruit of Christian virtue.

4. But considering the worldly condition of these believers, there seemed no great cause to congratulate them on their faith and love, for they drew affliction on them. The apostle therefore turns his eye of faith towards the future, and the blessed inheritance is as certified as though it were already in their hands. A good man’s promise is as good as its fulfilment, much more God’s. Being in heaven, the Christian’s treasure can neither be stolen nor soiled.

5. This sublime hope is derived from the truth of the gospel. So sublime is it that neither sense nor reason, nor the light of the law could have discovered it (2 Timothy 1:10). (J. Daille.)

The writer and the readers

Notice--

I. The blending of lowliness and authority in Paul’s designation of himself. He does not always bring his apostolic authority to mind in his letters. In his earliest, to the Thessalonians, he has not yet adopted the practice. In Philippians he has no need, for it was not gainsaid. In Philemon friendship is uppermost, and he will not command as an “apostle,” but pleads as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus.” In the rest he puts it in the foreground, as here.

1. He claims the apostolate in the highest sense of the word--equality with the original apostles, the chosen witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, for he, too, had seen the Lord, and his whole ministry was built upon the fact.

2. “Through the will of God” is at once an assertion of Divine authority and of independence, and also a lowly disclaimer of individual merit and power.

3. His gracious humility is seen in his association of his young brother Timothy, who has no apostolic authority, but whose concurrence in his teaching might give it some additional weight; but in the fiery sweep of his thoughts, Timothy is soon left out of sight and Paul alone pours out the wealth of his wisdom and the warmth of his heart.

II. The noble ideal of the Christian character set forth in the designations of the Colossian Church. In his earlier letters the address is to “the Church,” but in his latter, beginning with Romans, and including Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, he drops the word, and uses expressions which regard individuals rather than the community. This did not arise from any lower estimate of “the Church,” but advancing years and familiarity with his work, his position, and his auditors, all tended to draw him closer to them, and led to the disuse of the formal and official term in favour of the simpler and more affectionate “brethren.”

1. Saints--a word wofully misapplied. The Church has given it as a special honour to a few, and decorated with it the possessors of a false ideal of sanctity--that of the ascetic sort. The world has used it with a sarcastic intonation as if it implied loud professions and small performance, not without a touch of hypocrisy. Saints are not people living in cloisters, but men and women immersed in the vulgar work of every day life.

2. Faithful--trustworthy--true to the stewardship or trusting; probably the latter, because faith underlies consecration, and weaves the bond which unites men in the brotherhood, for it brings all who share it into a common relation to the Father. And then he who is believing will be faithful in the sense of being worthy of confidence, and true to his duty, his profession, and his Lord.

3. Brethren.

4. In Christ: saints, believers, brethren, are in Him as living things are in the atmosphere, the branch in the vine, members in the body, inhabitants in a house, hearts that love in hearts that love, parts in a whole.

III. The apostolic wish which sets forth the high ideal to be desired for churches and individuals. “And the Lord Jesus Christ” should be omitted. Perhaps the word “brethren” was lingering in Paul’s mind, and so instinctively he stopped with the kindred word “Father.”

1. Grace and peace blend the Western and Eastern forms of salutation, and surpass both. All that the Greek meant by his “grace” and the Hebrew by his “peace,” the ideally happy condition which differing nations have placed in different blessings, and all loving words have wished for dear ones, is secured and conveyed to every one who trusts in Christ.

2. Grace means--

So here first the gentleness of the Father, next the outcome of that love which never visits the soul empty-handed, and as the result every beauty of mind, heart, and temper. “Of His fulness we have received grace for grace.”

3. Peace comes after grace. For tranquillity of soul we must go to God, and He gives it by giving us His love and its gifts. There must be first peace with God that there may be peace from God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The apostolic salutation

Pondering this we ask three questions.

I. What it reveals about the apostle.

1. His dignity: “An apostle by the will of God.” a title--

(a) by supernatural visions and experiences;

(b) by seals of success.

(a) Because he was dealing with erroneous teaching, and so needed a claim of authority.

(b) He was personally an entire stranger to the Colossians.

(c) He writes from prison, and it was well that he should remind himself and them of his dignity. He was a prisoner, but he was none the less an apostle.

2. His condescension: “Timotheus our brother.” He was no fellow-apostle, yet his brother; his boyish convert, yet his brother. Great souls never patronize; they elevate men of whatever station or age into brotherhood with them. The Greatest is not ashamed to call us brethren.

II. What it implies about the Church. It recalls to us--

1. Its locality and associations. One of the historic Churches in the valley of the Lycus. The town had been famous, but its glory was waning. Xerxes and Cyrus had made it famous, bat Paul’s letter has made its name known where Xerxes and Cyrus have never been heard of.

2. Its character, which ought to be that of every Church.

III. What it suggests about true blessedness.

1. “Grace” is a Greek thought Christianized. It takes the conception of grace of form, gesture, tone into the spiritual realm. To Paul it has two meanings.

2. “Peace,” which may include--

I. The superscription.

1. The writer.

2. Paul associates with himself Timotheus the brother, or brother Timothy, not his own in particular, nor theirs, but the Church’s universally. The disciples of Jesus are a brotherhood, and every individual should be animated in relation to all the rest with the feelings of a brother or a sister.

3. The parties addressed were--

II. The salutation.

1. A cordial greeting of this kind was common with the apostle. It was no formality or empty inflation. He really felt most kindly towards the Colossians, and hence, with beautiful Christian gentlemanliness, he no sooner names them than he hastens to set them entirely at ease, by letting them feel his cordial friendliness.

2. The salutation is not a supplication, but rather a benediction. In the former we address God, in the latter man.

3. It is twofold--Greek and Hebrew, being a message to both peoples.

I. An exalted and important office. “Apostle.” Paul was commissioned to declare the grandest truths. His sphere was the world, and to fill it involved incredible care, work, and suffering. The office was created by the circumstances of the time. An ordinary officer can govern a garrison, but it requires a gifted general to marshal an army in line of battle. In the Divine government the occasion calls forth the man.

II. The authority that designates and qualifies. The will of God is the great originating and governing force. That force called and qualified Paul (Acts 9:1-43.). In undertaking the highest work for God it is not enough that we possess learning, gifts, piety, without the consciousness of a Divine commission. There are crises when it is necessary to have this to fall back upon.

III. A familiar Christian relationship. “Timotheus our brother.” He was Paul’s “own son in the faith,” but here he recognizes him on the more equal footing of brother. Christianity is a brotherhood; not a communism which drags down all to its own level, but a holy confederacy in which men of all ranks, ages, and talents unite. His equality is based on a moral foundation. The minister whose position is assured loses nothing by honouring his younger brethren.

IV. Unity of sympathy and desire. “Paul and Timothy.” The closest intimacy, notwithstanding disparity in rank and ability.

V. Suggestive phases of Christian character.

1. Saints.

2. Faithful brethren. Several races are here united in a holy and faithful brotherhood.

3. The sublime origin of the Christian character. “In Christ.”

VI. The salutation supplicates the bestowment of highest Divine blessings.

1. Grace. A term inclusive of all the blessings that can flow from God.

2. Peace. Grace expresses the spirit in which Divine manifestations come; peace the result they accomplish.

3. The source of the blessings desired. The Father’s love and the Son’s work are the sole source of every blessing, while the Holy Spirit is the agent of their communication. Learn: the broad, deep charity of the apostolic spirit, and the scope and temper of the prayers we should offer for the race. (G. Barlow.)

Verse 2

Colossians 1:2

To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ.

Saints

I. Their character. Holy persons. The idea is derived from the sacred vessels of the temple, which might not be appropriated to common uses. In a more general sense, saints are those who are eminent for piety, not all who are flattered or derided as such. One who is truly a saint--

1. Acknowledges that he was once a lost and undone sinner, and who daily brings his sins for pardon and his graces for increase to the throne of grace.

2. Has a new heart and a right spirit. He is a new creature--loving what God loves, and hating what He hates.

3. Is zealous for the cause of his Divine Master. Where there are no spiritual actions there is no spiritual life. The chief motives are fortitude and the constraining love of Christ.

4. Grows in grace.

II. Their relation to each other.

1. There are three kinds of brotherhood--natural, such as that between Esau and Jacob; national, such as existed among the Jews; spiritual, by adoption and grace. The last is the strongest, purest, and most enduring.

2. Of this Christ is the Elder Brother, and as He is not ashamed to own this relationship should we be either in regard to Himself or the poorest member of the family?

3. Love should spring out of this relationship. This is most natural! Christ has made love the badge of Christian discipleship; it is “good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity.”

4. Its distinguishing attribute is fidelity. Be thou faithful in defending your brother when defamed, in admonishing him when in the wrong, in helping him in difficulty, in comforting him in trouble. A false brother is worse than an open foe.

III. Their situation in the world.

1. Christians in the midst of heathens, and exposed to temptation and persecution.

2. Believers surrounded by heretics--their faith exposed to subtle undermining and bold attack.

3. Few as against many. Churches are often thus situated, but if they retain their holiness and faithfulness become more than conquerors. (T. Watson, B. A.)

Motives to saintliness

I. As our God is holy so must we be (1 Peter 1:15).

II. It is the end of our Divine choice (Ephesians 1:4).

III. Our calling bindeth us (1 Thessalonians 4:7).

IV. Our redemption (Titus 2:14).

V. The grace of God teaches us this (Titus 2:11-12).

VI. The final judgment persuades us thereunto (1 Peter 5:2; 1 John 3:3).

VII. The right constitution of the Church prohibits the unholy (Matthew 7:6). Conclusion:

1. This discovers to us the vanity of the Pope in restraining a title common to all believers while they live to some few whom it pleaseth him to canonize after death.

2. We see the lewdness of many profane Esaus who scoff at the name.

3. We must remember what kind of men we must be even such as must profess and practice holiness. (P. Bayne, B. D.)

In Christ

This mystical but most real union of Christians with their Lord is never far away from the apostle’s thoughts, and in the Epistle to the Ephesians it is the very burden of the whole. A shallower Christianity tries to weaken that great phrase to something more intelligible to the unspiritual temper and poverty-stricken experience proper to it; but no justice can be done to Paul’s teaching unless it be taken in all its depth as expressive of the same mutual indwelling and interlacing of spirit with spirit, which ,is so prominent in the writings of John. There is one point of contact between the Pauline and Johannean conceptions, on the difference between which so much exaggeration has been expended; to both the inmost essence of the Christian life is union to Christ, and abiding in Him. If we are Christians we are in Him in a profounder sense than creation lives and moves and has its being in God. This is the deepest mystery of the Christian life. To be “in Him” is to be complete. “In Him” we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings.” “In Him” we are “chosen.” “In Him” God “freely bestows His grace upon us.” “In Him we have redemption through His blood.” “In Him” “all things in heaven and earth are gathered.” In Him is the better life of an that live. In Him we have peace though the world be seething with changed all storm. In Him we conquer though earth and our own evil he all in arms against us. If we live in Him, we live in purity and joy. If we die in Him, we die in tranquil trust. If our gravestones may truly carry the sweet old inscription, carved on many a nameless slab in the Catacombs, “In Christo,” they will also bear the other, “In pace.” If we sleep in Him, our glory is assured, “For them also that sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Grace and peace

Grace is introductory good; peace is final good: he therefore who wishes these two blessings includes every intermediate benefit.

I. Grace denotes--

1. The gratuitous act of the Divine will accepting man in Christ and pardoning his sins (Ephesians 2:5; Romans 3:24). This free love of God is the first gift in which all other gifts are bestowed.

2. All those habitual gifts which God infuses for the sanctification of the soul. So faith, love, and all virtues and salutary endowments are called graces (Ephesians 4:7).

3. The actual assistance of God, whereby the regenerate, after having received habitual grace, are strengthened to perform good works, and to persevere in faith and godliness. For to man renewed and sanctified by grace, the daily aid of God is still necessary for every single act. The union of all these is necessary: inherent grace is not given unless the grace of acceptance has preceded it; neither being given is it available to the production of fruits, unless also the efficacious help of God follow and accompany it through every individual action.

II. Peace. The Hebrews used this expression as we use the expression health or joy: it signifies prosperity marked by no calamities either public or private (Genesis 43:27; Psalms 122:6). But with the apostles it is used more extensively, and comprehends more especially spiritual joy and prosperity. Therefore under this term Paul desires for them--

1. Internal peace, or peace of conscience, which arises from the grace of God accepting us for Christ’s sake (John 14:27; Romans 5:1; Philippians 4:7).

2. Brotherly peace; “breaking peace they exclude grace.” This is a great and desirable good, and is frequently celebrated as the special gift of God (1 Corinthians 14:33; 2 Corinthians 13:11). The seeds of schism had been scattered abroad; there was therefore need of peace.

3. That external peace which is the well-being of the Church; but only yet so far as it does not militate against their spiritual good; for sometimes it conduces more to the welfare of the faithful that they be afflicted than that they enjoy external tranquility.

III. We may gather--

1. From the order itself, as he places grace before peace, he teaches us--

2. From the thing itself desired--

Verses 3-8

Colossians 1:3-8

We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The prelude

I. A thankful recognition of Christian excellence as introductory to warnings and remonstrances. Almost all Paul’s Epistles begin thus. Gentle rain softens the ground, and prepares it to receive the heavier downfall which would else mostly run off the hard surface. These expressions are not compliments, or flattery used for personal ends, but uncalculated expressions of affection which delights to see white patches in the blackest character, and of wisdom which knows that the nauseous medicine of blame is most easily taken if wrapped in a capsule of honest praise. All persons in authority may be the better for taking this lesson.

2. The praise is cast in the form of thanksgiving to God, as the true fountain of all that is good in men. All that might be harmful in direct praise is thus strained out of it. Christian excellences are God’s gifts. The fountain, not the pitcher, should have the credit of the water.

3. There were two points which occasioned his thankfulness.

(a) In all, faith is the same--simple confidence. But how unlike are the objects!--broken reeds in the one case, and the firm pillar of Divine power and tenderness in the other. And how unlike, alas! the fervency and constancy of our trust in each other and in Him.

(b) Faith covers the whole ground of man’s relation to God. Everything that binds us to the unseen world is included in it.

(c) From that fruitful source all good will come, and that faith lacks its best warrant which does not lead to whatsoever is of good report.

II. A solemn reminder of the truth and worth of that gospel which was threatened by the budding heresies of the Colossian Church.

1. He begins by reminding them that to that gospel they owed all their knowledge and hope of heaven. Its sole certainty is built on the resurrection of Christ, and its sole hope on His death. All around us we see those who reject these surrender their faith in the life beyond.

2. The gospel is a word of which the whole subject and contents is truth. It is of value, not because it feeds sentiment or regulates conduct only, but because it reveals knowledge about the deepest things of God, of which, but for it, man would know nothing. It is not speculation, but truth; and truth because it is the record of Him who is “the Truth.” “To whom shall we go?” If elsewhere, to will-o’-the-wisps and Babel.

3. This gospel had been received by them. “You have accepted the Word; see that your future be consistent with your past.” Blessed are they whose creed at last can be spoken in the lessons learned in childhood, to which experience has but given new meaning.

4. This gospel was filling the world. “All the world” must be taken with an allowance for rhetorical statement, but the rapid spread of Christianity then, and its power to influence all sorts of men, were facts that needed to be accounted for if the gospel were not true. All schisms and heresies are partial and local, suit coteries, and are the product of circumstances; but the gospel goes through the world, and draws all men. Dainties are for the few, and the delicacies of one country are the abominations of another; but everybody breaks bread and lives on it. Do not fling away the gospel, which belongs to all, for that which can never live in the popular heart, nor influence more than a handful of “superior persons.”

5. Another plea for adherence to the gospel is based on its continuous and universal fruitfulness. It brings about results which attest its claim to be from God. Our imperfections are our own; our good is its. A medicine is not shown to be powerless if a sick man has taken it irregularly. This rod has budded at all events; have any of its antagonists’ rods done the same? Don’t cast it away, says Paul, till you have found a better.

6. They have heard a gospel which reveals the “true grace of God”--another argument for steadfastness. In opposition to it then, as now, were put various thoughts and requirements, a human wisdom and a burdensome code. They are but bony things to try and live on. The soul wants something more than bread made out of sawdust. We want a loving God to live on, whom we can love because He loves us. Will anything but the gospel give us that?

III. The apostolic endorsement of Epaphras, the early teacher of the Colossians, whose authority, no doubt, was imperilled by the new direction of thought, and Paul was desirous of adding the weight of his attestation to the complete correspondence between his own teaching and that of Epaphras. We know nothing of him except from this letter end that to Philemon. He is a member of the Colossian Church (Colossians 4:12). He had brought the tidings which filled the apostle’s heart with joy and love for their Christian walk (verses 4-8), and of anxiety lest they should be swept away from their steadfastness. Epaphras shared this (Colossians 4:12). He was in some sense Paul’s “fellow-prisoner,” and alone of Paul’s companions receives the name of “fellow-servant,” which may be an instance of Paul’s courteous humility. “Don’t make differences--we are both slaves of one Master.” As He had truly represented Paul, so he had lovingly represented them. Probably those who questioned Epaphras’ version of Paul’s teaching would suspect his report of the Church; hence the double witness borne from the apostle’s generous heart to both parts of his brother’s work. Never was leader truer to his subordinates than Paul. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Thanksgiving

I. The duty.

1. Arises out of an express command. We are bound to be thankful for all things (Job 1:21; Isaiah 24:15).

2. Is a test of Christian character. All the saints have been distinguished by it, and have treasured up their mercies that they might render it. To be lacking in it is to lack the chief distinguishing grace of Christian character, and to incur the greatest sin- ingratitude.

3. Must always form a prominent feature of spiritual worship- witness the Psalms.

4. Is most reasonable in itself--when we consider that it is the best return we can make for any blessing.

II. Its special subjects. The graces of the spirit in ourselves or others.

1. Faith takes the precedence, because it is the first and root-grace. Think of what faith does--saves, is the evidence of things unseen, casts all care on God, etc.

2. Love which is fruitful in blessed effects. The loveless man is miserable.

3. A good hope through grace--which anticipates heaven. (T. Watson, B. A.)

Apostolic thanksgiving

I. Its spirit.

1. It is unselfish. We hear the prisoner praise and exult for the joys of others. Arthur Helps says: “It is a noble sight. That man is very powerful who has no more hopes for himself, who looks not to be loved or admired any more, to have more honour and dignity; but whose sole thought is for others, and who only lives for them.”

2. Ungrudging. He is about to deal with their errors, but is eager first to recognize what is laudable. There are two sets of men, those who first see the blemish, then the beauty; and those who first admire and then criticise. To the first of these Paul belonged.

3. Constant.

II. Its subjects.

1. The spiritual possessions of the Church. Sometimes Paul views faith and love as leading up to hope: here he depicts hope as kindling faith and love.

2. The means by which these possessions had been obtained.

(a) In its universality.

(b) In its fertility. The gospel is not only vital, but reproductive.

3. The source and sphere of their possession. “Love in the Spirit” is the life of all the saints. (U. R. Thomas.)

The custom of the apostle to begin his Epistles with thanksgiving showed the devout habit of his mind, his constant recognition of the source of good, and his interest in the spiritual condi tion of those to whom he wrote.

I. Thanksgiving an essential element in prayer. “We give thanks, praying always for you.”

II. The Being to Whom all thanksgiving is due. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’“

III. The grounds of this thanksgiving.

1. The reputation of their faith in Christ.

2. Their possession of an expansive Christian love. Love to Christ is necessarily involved, for love to the saints is our affection for Christ’s image in them. Love is all-embracing. Peculiarities, defects, differences of opinion, are no barriers. It is the unanswerable evidence of moral transformation (1 John 3:14). It is the grandest triumph over the natural enmity of the human heart. It is the indissoluble bond of choicest fellowship.

3. Their enjoyment of a well-sustained hope.

Lessons:

1. We should thank God for others more on account of their spiritual than temporal welfare.

2. Learn what are the essential elements of the Christian character--faith, love, hope.

3. The proclamation of the gospel should be welcomed, and its message pondered. (G. Barlow.)

The connection between thanksgiving and prayer

The participle marks the thanksgiving as part of the prayer, and the adverb makes it prominent, indicating that when they prayed for them they always gave thanks. There is no true prayer without thanksgiving. Gratitude intensifies the soul’s sense of dependence on God, and prompts the cry for the needed help; and, on the other hand, earnest prayer naturally glides into fervent thankfulness. As one sin is interlinked with and produced by another, so the Use of one grace begets another. The more temporal things are used, the more they wear and waste; but spiritual things are strengthened and increased with exercise. Every spiritual grace has in it the seed of an endless reproductiveness. Underlying every thanksgiving for others is a spirit of tender, disinterested love. Moved by this passion, the apostle, from the midst of imprisonment and sorrow, could soar on the wings of gratitude and prayer to heaven. “Thanksgiving will be the bliss of eternity.” (Passavant.)

Five Christian elements

I. Christian experience. It consists in--

1. Faith.

2. Love, the constant attendant of faith, and by which faith works.

3. Hope.

II. Christian communion consists in--

1. Joy and gratitude to God on behalf of those who give evidence of being partakers of His grace in truth. This is quite distinct from ordinary friendship.

2. Fervent prayer for the establishment and perfection of those graces in the beginning of which we rejoice (verses 9, 10).

3. Cheering and animating each other to perseverance, notwithstanding all the trials and difficulties we may meet (verse 11).

4. Encouraging each other constantly to keep in mind our infinite obligations and glorious prospects (verses 12, 13).

III. Christian resources.

1. The word of the truth of the gospel (verse 5). Till this came the Colossians were strangers to faith, love, and hope.

2. The instrumentality of ministers. Epaphras and Paul were dear fellow-servants and faithful ministers, one preaching to the Colossians, by which they believed, and both labouring for their establishment and edification.

3. Prayer for the supply of all those spiritual blessings which the saints have learned to appreciate and desire (verses 3-9).

4. The operations of the Holy Spirit, which gives efficiency to all love (verse 8) is especially said to be in the Spirit, who is indeed the agent of every grace.

IV. Christian practice (verse 6). Wherever the gospel is preached, and attended with Divine power and efficacy, it brings forth fruit.

1. In the conversion of sinners.

2. Where vital religion is possessed it is evidenced by exemplary deportment and diffusive benevolence. There is fruit that both the Church and the world can see. They cannot see our love to Christ or our hope of heaven, but they can see our conscientious dealings in the world, our charity, our unworldliness. These are fruits which give evidence of vitality and vigour in the root.

V. Christian expectations. Christians have a hope that is laid up for them in heaven.

1. As to themselves, it is secret and out of sight. It is only faith that can realize it. They are yet in their minority in a world of discipline and education; heirs, indeed, but not of age. Supplies are sent them here, but their hope, their portion, is laid up in heaven.

2. It is treasured up in a place of perfect security, so that no enemy or thief can reach it.

3. It is laid up where none of the changes of time can affect it. If we carried it about with us, we might lose it. When we die we should drop it; but it is safe in heaven, out of the reach of disappointment.

Conclusion:

1. If we desire spiritual prosperity, let us be much in prayer for ourselves and others. Nothing more enlarges our capacity for holy enjoyment.

2. If we possess a hope in heaven, let it be evidenced by superiority to the world and love to our fellow-heirs.

3. If these blessings are imparted to sinners through the instrumentality of the gospel, be concerned to spread the gospel. (J. Hirst.)

Christian love the chief grace

Love, amid the other graces in this world, is like a cathedral tower, which begins on the earth, and, at first, is surrounded by the other parts of the structure. But, at length, rising above buttressed walls, and arch, and parapet, and pinnacle, it shoots spirelike many a foot right into the air, so high that the huge cross on its summit glows like a spark in the morning light, and shines like a star in the evening sky, when the rest of the pile is enveloped in darkness. So love, here, is surrounded by the other graces, and divides the honours with them; but they will have felt the wrap of night, and of darkness, when it will shine, luminous, against the sky of eternity. (H. W. Beecher. )