itfulness of their faith, and assures them of his incessant prayers
in their behalf (chap. 1:1-12), and passes to his great theme, which is
to set forth the divine dignity and glory of Christ's person. He is the
image of the invisible God, existing before all things, and the creator
and upholder of all things, those angelic orders included whom the false
teachers regarded as objects of worship (verses 15-17). He is also the
head of the church, and as such unites under himself all holy beings in
heaven and earth in one happy family (verses 18-22). In him all fulness
dwells, and all believers are complete in him; receiving through him a
spiritual circumcision which brings to them holiness of heart,
forgiveness of sins, and life from the dead (verses 11-13). Christ has
abolished by his death on the cross "the handwriting of ordinances"--the
Mosaic ordinances under the figure of a bond which was before of binding
force, but which he has annulled--so that the former ground of
separation between Jews and Gentiles is done away (2:14). By the same
death on the cross he has "spoiled principalities and powers"--the
powers of darkness, of which Satan is the head--openly triumphing over
them (verse 15). The Colossians, then, have all that they need in
Christ, and the apostle affectionately warns them against being spoiled
through the philosophy of these false teachers, which is a compound of
ignorance, self-conceit, and will-worship, void alike of reality and
power.

The _second_ part is _practical_. Chaps. 3, 4. The duties on which the
apostle insists come mainly under two general heads. The first is that
of a _heavenly temper of mind_ growing out of their resurrection with
Christ who sits at the right hand of God, and who shall appear again to
receive his disciples to himself, that they also may appear with him in
glory. In view of this animating hope he exhorts the Colossians to put
away all the sins belonging to their former state of heathenism. Chap.
3:1-8. The second is that of _mutual love and harmony_ arising from
their union with each other in Christ, whereby they have been made one
holy body, in which outward distinctions are nothing "but Christ is all
and in all." On this ground they are urged to cultivate all the graces
of the Spirit, the chief of which is love, and faithfully to discharge,
each one in his station, the mutual duty which they owe as husbands and
wives, as parents and children, as masters and servants. Cha