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From: Colossians 2:6-15

A Warning About Empty Philosophies

[6] As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, [7] rooted and
built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in
thanksgiving.

[8] See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit,
according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe,
and not according to Christ.

Defense of Sound Teaching in the Face of Heresy

[9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you have come
to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. [11] In him also
you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the
body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; [12] and you were buried with him in
baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of
God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in trespasses
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having
forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] having canceled the bond which stood against
us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He dis-
armed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, trium-
phing over them in him.

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Commentary:

4-8. These verses reveal the Apostle’s pastoral solicitude for the faithful of Colos-
sae. Although physically absent, he is with them in spirit. He rejoices and gives
thanks to God for their steadfastness, but he leaves them in no doubt about the
dangers which threaten their faith. Clearly he is referring to those who were adul-
terating the Colossians’ faith by intruding erroneous ideas. By sophistry and de-
ceit they were trying to convince the faithful that it was better to have recourse
to angels rather than to Christ, arguing that angels were the chief mediators be-
tween God and men.

The Christian faith is not opposed to human scholarship and science, it rejects
only vain philosophy, that is, philosophy which boasts that it relies on reason a-
lone and which fails to respect revealed truths.

Over the centuries, people have often tried to adapt the truths of faith to the phi-
losophies or ideologies which happen to be in vogue. In this connection Leo Xlll
said: “As the Apostle warns, ‘philosophy and empty deceit’ can deceive the
minds of Christians and corrupt the sincerity of men’s faith; the supreme pastors
of the Church, therefore, always see it as part of their role to foster as much as
they can sciences which merit that name, and at the same time to ensure by
special watchfulness, that human sciences are taught in keeping with the crite-
ria of Catholic faith—particularly philosophy, because proper methodology in the
other sciences is largely dependent on [correctness in] philosophy” (”Aeterni
Patris”, 1).

“The elemental spirits of the universe”: see the note on Gal 4:3.

9. This is such an important verse that it deserves close analysis. “Dwell”: the
Greek word means a stable way of living or residing, as distinct from a transitory
presence: in other words, the union of Christ’s human nature with his divine na-
ture is not just something which lasts for a while; it is permanent. “Deity”: the
Greek word can also be translated as “divinity”; in either case, the sentence
means that God has taken up a human nature, in such a way that, although it
was only the second divine Person, the Son, who became incarnate, by virtue of
the unity of the divine essence, where one divine person is present the other two
persons are also present.

This verse enunciates the profound mystery of the Incarnation in a different way
to John 1:14: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and
truth; we have beheld his glory; glory as of the only Son from the Father” (cf. al-
so 1 in 1:1-2).

When the sacred text says that in Christ “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodi-
ly”, it means, St John of Avila explains, “that it does not dwell in him merely by
grace — as in the case of the saints (men and angels both), but in another way
of greater substance and value, that is, by way of personal union” (”Audi, “Filia”,
84).

In Jesus Christ, then, there are two natures, divine and human, united in one per-
son, who is divine. This “hypostatic union” does not prevent each nature from ha-
ving all its own proper characteristics, for, as St Leo the Great defined, “the Word
has not changed into flesh, nor has flesh changed into Word; but each remains,
in a unity” (”Licet Per Nostros”, 2).

10. Since Christ is head of angels and men, the head of all creation (cf. Eph 1:
10) and especially head of the Church (cf. Col 1:18), all fullness is said to reside
in him (cf. note on Col 1:19). Hence, not only is he pre-eminent over all things
but “he fills the Church, which is his body and fullness, with his divine gifts (cf.
Eph 1:22-23), so that it may increase and attain to all the fullness of God (cf.
Eph 3:19)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 7).

Union with Christ makes Christians sharers in his “fullness”, that is, in divine
grace (of which he is absolutely full and we have a partial share), in a word, in
his perfections.

That is why the members of the Church who “through the sacraments are united
in a hidden and real way to Christ” (”Lumen Gentium”, 7) can attain the fullness
of the Christian life.

It was very appropriate for St Paul to be instructing the Colossians in these truths
at this time, because it put them on their guard against preachers who were argu-
ing for exaggerated worship of angels, to the detriment of Christ’s unique, pre-
eminent mediation.

11-12. This is a reference to another error which the Judaizers were trying to
spread at Colossae and which was already treated in detail in the letters to the
Galatians and the Romans—the idea that it was necessary for Christians to be
circumcised. Physical circumcision affects the body, whereas what the Apostle,
by analogy, calls “the circumcision of Christ”, that is, Baptism, puts off the “bo-
dy of flesh” (an expression which seems to refer to whatever is sinful in man).
“We, who by means of (Christ) have reached God, have not been given fleshly
circumcision but rather spiritual circumcision [...]; we receive it by the mercy of
God in Baptism” (St Justin, “Dialogue with Trypho”, 43, 2). “By the sacrament
of Baptism, whenever it is properly conferred in the way the Lord determined and
received with the proper dispositions of soul, man becomes truly incorporated in-
to the crucified and glorified Christ and is reborn to a sharing of the divine life, as
the Apostle says: [Col 2:12 follows]” (Vatican II, “Unitatis Redintegratio”, 22).

As on other occasions (cf. Rom 6:4), St Paul, evoking the rite of immersion in
water, speaks of Baptism as a kind of burial (a sure sign that someone has died
to sin), and of resurrection to a new life, the life of grace. By this sacrament we
are associated with Christ’s death and burial so as to be able to rise with him.
“Christ by his resurrection signified our new life, which was reborn out of the old
death which submerged us in sin. This is what is brought about in us by the great
sacrament of Baptism: all those who receive this grace die to sin [...] and are re-
born to the new life” (St Augustine, “Enchiridion”, 41-42).

13-14. This is one of the central teachings of the epistle—that Jesus Christ is the
only mediator between God and men. The basic purpose of his mediation is to re-
concile men with God, through the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the life
of grace, which is a sharing in God’s own life.

Verse 14 indicates how Christ achieved this purpose — by dying on the Cross.
All who were under the yoke of sin and the Law have been set free through his
death. The Mosaic Law, to which the scribes and Pharisees added so many pre-
cepts as to make it unbearable, had become (to use St Paul’s comparison) like
a charge sheet against man, because it imposed heavy burdens but did not pro-
vide the grace needed for bearing them. The Apostle very graphically says that
this charge sheet or “bond” was set aside and nailed on the Cross—making it per-
fectly clear to all that Christ made more than ample satisfaction for our crimes.
“He has obliterated them,” St John Chrysostom comments, “not simply crossed
them out; he has obliterated them so effectively that no trace of them remains in
our soul. He has completely canceled them out, he has nailed them to the Cross
[...]. We were guilty and deserved the most rigorous of punishments because we
were all of us in sin! What, then, does the Son of God do? By his death on the
Cross he removes all our stains and exempts us from the punishment due to
them. He takes our charge-sheet, nails it to the Cross through his own person
and destroys it” (”Hom. on Col, ad loc.”).

15. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. The angelic principalities
and powers are insignificant by comparison with him: God has overpowered them
and publicly exposed them through the death of his Son. The sentence seems to
evoke the idea of the parade of a victorious general complete with trophies, booty
and prisoners.

Some scholars interpret this passage differently; the “public spectacle”, accor-
ding to their interpretation, would refer to the fact that the good angels had been
mediators in the revelation of the Mosaic Law (cf. Gal 3:19) and were being vene-
rated by some contemporary Jews (among them some converts from Colossae)
with a form of worship bordering on superstition. God would have caused them to
become “a public spectacle” when they acted as a kind of escort in Christ’s vic-
tory parade. Thus, both interpretations lead to the conclusion that angels, who
are Christ’s servants, should not be rendered the worship due to him alone, even
though they do play an important part in God’s plan of salvation. One of the mis-
sions entrusted to them is that of continually interceding on behalf of mankind.

At the time this epistle was being written there was need to emphasize first that
Jesus Christ is the only mediator. The mediation of angels depends on him (it is
something revealed in fact in the Old Testament: cf. Tob 12:3, 12ff; Dan 9:2ff; 10:
13; Ezek 49:3; Zech 1:9; etc.). The Blessed Virgin Mary’s mediation, also subor-
dinate to that of Christ, is something which becomes clearer as the events of the
New Testament unfold. Mary’s mediation is, however, on a higher level than that
of the angels. Ven. Pope Pius XII says this, echoing earlier teachings: “If, as he
does, the Word works miracles and infuses grace by means of the human nature
he has taken on, if he uses the sacraments, and his Saints, as instruments for
the saving of souls, how could he not use the office and action of his most bles-
sed Mother to distribute the fruits of the Redemption?

“With a truly maternal spirit (our predecessor Pius IX of immortal memory says),
having in her hands the business of our salvation, she concerns herself with all
mankind, for she has been made by the Lord Queen of heaven and earth and is
raised above all the choirs of Angels and all the degrees of the Saints in heaven;
she is there at the right hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, in most ef-
fective supplication, obtaining whatever she asks; she cannot but be heard” (”Ad
Caeli Reginam”, 17).

“Principalities and powers”: see the note on Eph 6:12.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.