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014 - Chapter 3 verses 1-4 · Commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians

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  Speaker 1: Section fourteen of Commentary on the Epistle to the Clautians
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  Speaker 1: by John Calvin, translated by Reverend John Pringle the LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings in the public domain. Chapter three, verses one through four.
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  Speaker 1: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
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  Speaker 1: which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
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  Speaker 1: of God. Set your affection on things above, not on
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  Speaker 1: things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your
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  Speaker 1: life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who
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  Speaker 1: is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear
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  Speaker 1: with Him in glory. To those fruitless exercises which the
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  Speaker 1: false apostles urged, as though perfection consisted in them. He
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  Speaker 1: opposes those true exercises in which it becomes Christians to
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  Speaker 1: employ themselves. And this has no slight bearing upon the
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  Speaker 1: point in hand, For when we see what God would
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  Speaker 1: have us, do we afterwards easily despise the inventions of men.
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  Speaker 1: When we perceive two that what God recommends to us
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  Speaker 1: is much more lofty and excellent than what men inculcate.
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  Speaker 1: An alacrity of mind increases for following God so as
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  Speaker 1: to disregard men. Paul here exhorts the Colautions to meditation
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  Speaker 1: upon the heavenly life. And what as to his opponents,
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  Speaker 1: they were desirous to retain their childish rudiments. This doctrine
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  Speaker 1: therefore makes the ceremonies be the more lightly esteemed. Hence
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  Speaker 1: it is manifest that Paul in this passage exhorts in
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  Speaker 1: such a manner as to confirm the foregoing doctrine. For
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  Speaker 1: in describing solid piety and holiness of life, his aim
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  Speaker 1: is that those vain shows of human traditions may vanish.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, he anticipates an objection with which
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  Speaker 1: the false apostles might assail him. What then, quote wouldst
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  Speaker 1: Thou rather have men be idle than addict themselves to
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  Speaker 1: such exercises of whatever sort they may be end quote?
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  Speaker 1: When therefore he bids Christians apply themselves to exercises of
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  Speaker 1: a greatly superior kind, he cuts off the handle for
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  Speaker 1: this calumny. Nay more, he loads them with no small odium,
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  Speaker 1: on the ground that they impede the right course of
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  Speaker 1: the pious by worthless amusements. One. If ye are risen
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  Speaker 1: with Christ, ascension follows resurrection. Hence, if we are the
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  Speaker 1: members of Christ, we must ascend into heaven, because He
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  Speaker 1: on being raised up from the dead was received up
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  Speaker 1: into heaven Mark sixteen nineteen, that he might draw us
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  Speaker 1: up with him. Now we seek those things which are above,
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  Speaker 1: when in our minds we are truly sojourners in this
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  Speaker 1: world and are not bound to it. The word rendered
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  Speaker 1: thinks upon expresses rather a suity and intensity of aim. Quote.
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  Speaker 1: Let your whole meditation be as to this, to this,
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  Speaker 1: apply your intellect to this your mind. But if we
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  Speaker 1: ought to think of nothing but of what is heavenly,
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  Speaker 1: because Christ is in heaven, how much less becoming were
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  Speaker 1: it to seek Christ upon the earth. Let us therefore
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  Speaker 1: bear in mind that that is a true and holy
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  Speaker 1: thinking as to Christ, which forthwith bears us up into Heaven,
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  Speaker 1: that we may there adore Him, and that our minds
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  Speaker 1: may dwell with him. As to the right hand of God,
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  Speaker 1: it is not confined to heaven, but fills the whole world.
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  Speaker 1: Paul has made mention of it here to intimate that
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  Speaker 1: Christ encompasses us by his power, that we may not
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  Speaker 1: think that distance of place is a cause of separation
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  Speaker 1: between us and Him, and that at the same time
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  Speaker 1: his majesty may excite us wholly to reverence him. Two
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  Speaker 1: not the things that are on earth. He does not mean,
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  Speaker 1: as he does little afterwards depraved appetites which reign in
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  Speaker 1: earthly man, nor even riches or fields, or houses, nor
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  Speaker 1: any other things of the present life, which we must
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  Speaker 1: use as though we did not use them verse Corinthians
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  Speaker 1: seven thirty thirty one. But is still following out his
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  Speaker 1: discussion as to ceremonies, which he represents as resembling entanglements
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  Speaker 1: which constrain us to creep upon the ground. Quote. Christ
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  Speaker 1: says he calls us upward to himself, while these draw
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  Speaker 1: us downwards. End quote. For this is the winding up
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  Speaker 1: and exposition of what he had lately touched upon as
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  Speaker 1: to the abolition of ceremonies through the death of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Quote the ceremonies are dead to you through the death
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  Speaker 1: of Christ, and you to them in order that, being
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  Speaker 1: raised up to Heaven with Christ, you may think only
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  Speaker 1: of those things which are above. Leave off therefore earthly
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  Speaker 1: things end quote. I shall not contend against others who
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  Speaker 1: are of a different way mind. But certainly the Apostle
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  Speaker 1: appears to me to go on step by step, so
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  Speaker 1: that in the first instance, he places traditions as to
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  Speaker 1: trivial matters in contrast with meditation on the heavenly life,
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  Speaker 1: and afterwards, as we shall see, goes a step farther three.
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  Speaker 1: For ye are dead. No one can rise again with
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  Speaker 1: Christ if he has not first died with him. Hence
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  Speaker 1: he draws an argument from rising again to dying, as
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  Speaker 1: from a consequent to an antecedent, meaning that we must
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  Speaker 1: be dead to the world that we may live. To Christ,
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  Speaker 1: why has he taught that we must seek those things
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  Speaker 1: that are above? It is because the life of the
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  Speaker 1: pious is above. Why does he now teach that the
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  Speaker 1: things which are on earth are to be left off
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  Speaker 1: because they are dead to the world. Quote Death goes
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  Speaker 1: before that resurrection of which I have spoken. Hence both
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  Speaker 1: of them must be seen in you end quote. It
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  Speaker 1: is worthy of observation that our life is said to
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  Speaker 1: be hid, that we may not murmur or complain if
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  Speaker 1: our life, being buried under the ignomity of the cross
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  Speaker 1: and under various distresses, differs nothing from death, but may
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  Speaker 1: patiently wait for the day of revelation. And in order
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  Speaker 1: that our waiting may not be painful, let us observe
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  Speaker 1: those expressions in God and with Christ which intimate that
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  Speaker 1: our life is out of danger, although it does not appear.
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  Speaker 1: For in the first place, God is faithful, and therefore
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  Speaker 1: will not deny what has been committed to him two
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  Speaker 1: Timothy one twelve, nor deceive in the guardianship which he
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  Speaker 1: has undertaken. And secondly, the fellowship of Christ brings still
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  Speaker 1: greater security. For what is to be more desired by
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  Speaker 1: us than this, that our life remain with the very
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  Speaker 1: fountain of life. Hence, there is no reason why we
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  Speaker 1: should be alarmed if, on looking around on every side,
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  Speaker 1: we nowhere see life. For we are saved by hope.
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  Speaker 1: But those things which are already seen with our eyes
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  Speaker 1: are not hoped for Romans eight twenty four. Nor does
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  Speaker 1: he teach that our life is hid merely in the
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  Speaker 1: opinion of the world, but even as to our own view,
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  Speaker 1: because this is the true and necessary trial of our hope.
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  Speaker 1: That being encompassed as it were, with death, we may
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  Speaker 1: seek life somewhere else than in the world. Four. But
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  Speaker 1: when Christ, our life shall appear. Here we have a
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  Speaker 1: choice consolation that the coming of Christ will be the
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  Speaker 1: manifestation of our life. And at the same time he
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  Speaker 1: admonishes us, how unreasonable were the disposition of the man
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  Speaker 1: who should refuse to bear up until that day. For
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  Speaker 1: if our life is shut up in Christ, it must
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  Speaker 1: be hid until He shall appear. And of Section fourteen
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  Speaker 1: read by David Ronald sa