Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Colossians · About this commentary
Presented Holy and Blameless
Colossians 1:21-23
21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, · WEB
The cosmic reconciliation is applied to these particular people, and the alienation is located in the mind.
You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds. Paul brings the hymn down onto his readers, and the diagnosis is precise about where the trouble sat. Not in circumstances or in ignorance but in the mind, worked out in conduct — the estrangement was inward first and behavioral second.
Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. The phrasing is almost redundantly physical, and it is answering something: whatever the Colossian teaching held about matter, this letter insists the reconciliation happened in a body.
The purpose is a presentation — holy, without defect, and blameless before him. The three terms are sacrificial, the language of an offering examined and passed.
Verse 23 attaches a condition, and it should not be softened: if you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, not moved away from the hope of the Good News. The letter that insists nothing can be added also insists the readers stay put. And the ground given is not their steadiness but the gospel's reach — preached in all creation under heaven, of which Paul was made a servant.
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