Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Colossians · About this commentary
Strengthened with All Power
Colossians 1:11-12
11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy, · WEB
The most extravagant description of divine power in the letter is spent on endurance and patience — with joy.
Strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory. The piling is deliberate and hard to render: power, might, glory, one after another, and the standard of the strengthening is not what a person needs but what God is.
Then the purpose, and it is not what the buildup prepares a reader for. Unto all patience and perseverance, with joy. Not miracles, not victory, not visions. Two words for staying put — perseverance is the one for bearing up under pressure, patience the one for bearing with people — and the third clause refuses to let it be grim.
That pairing is the letter's quiet realism. Colossian believers were being offered advancement; what Paul asks God to supply is the ability to keep going without becoming bitter.
Verse 12 turns to thanks, and to the Father who qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. The verb means to make sufficient, and it is in the past tense — the qualification is done. In a letter answering people who insisted something was still missing, Paul begins the great section with a completed act.
settled What this mark means