Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Colossians · About this commentary
All the Treasures of Wisdom
Colossians 2:1-3
1 For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; · WEB
Paul struggles for people who have never seen his face — and locates in Christ everything the teachers said lay beyond him.
I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea , and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. The verb is the athlete's contending from Colossians 1:29, and its object here is prayer for strangers.
What he wants for them is stated in a chain: hearts comforted, knit together in love, and all riches of the full assurance of understanding. Assurance is the goal rather than advancement, and it is corporate — knit together — before it is individual.
Then the sentence the chapter turns on. That they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.
Every loaded word the Colossian teaching used is in that clause — mystery, treasure, wisdom, knowledge, hidden — and Paul puts all of them in one location. The treasures are hidden, but the hiding place is named, and it is the person these readers already have. That is the letter's method throughout: not denying that there is more to know, but denying there is anywhere else to look.
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