Colossians 3:11

3:5-11 It is our duty to mortify our members which incline to the things of the world. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. Continual opposition must be made to all corrupt workings, and no provision made for carnal indulgences. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. The gospel changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite and passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions and circumstances of life. It is the duty of every one to be holy, because Christ is a Christian's All, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness.

{9} Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. (9) He tells them again that the Gospel does not refer to those external things, but true justification and sanctification in Christ alone, which have many fruits, as he reckons them up here: but he commends two things especially, that is, godly harmony, and continual study of God's word.

Colossians 3:11 . Ὅπου ) where , i.e. in whom , or in which thing .— οὐκ ἔνι , there is not present ) In the estimation of God and of believers there is present neither Jew, etc.— Ἕλλην καὶ Ἰουδαῖος , Greek and Jew ) The concrete for the abstract, as afterwards also Christ is used: for circumcision and uncircumcision , which occur presently, are abstract nouns.— ἀκροβυστία , uncircumcision ) Even the Greek might have been circumcised. Therefore the mention of uncircumcision renders the expression more distinct.— Βάρβαρος , Σκύθης , Barbarian, Scythian ) These two words, put by Asyndeton without a conjunction, make equally a pair ( συζυγίαν ) as bond, free . The Greeks were on the west, the Jews on the east; the Barbarians on the south (for Scaliger shows that the term Barbarians is an Arabic word properly applied to the Numidians), the Scythians on the north, more barbarous than the barbarians (properly so-called). And with this impression Anacharsis, as Galen relates, was reproached by, I know not whom, ὅτι βάρβαρος εἴη καὶ Σκὐθης , that he was a barbarian, and [what is tantamount to] barbarous, a Scythian . Every nation, as it prefers some one other nation to itself, so again, under whatever pretext, prefers itself to all the rest. Therefore the Barbarian, as occupying the middle place between the Greeks and Scythians, gave the palm to the Greek, but at the same time considered himself superior to the Scythian. Faith takes away this distinction.

Perhaps at Colosse there were one or two Scythian Christians.— τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσι Χριστὸς , Christ is all and in all ) The apposition is Χριστὸς ( ὤν ) τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν πᾶσι . A Scythian is not a Scythian, but Christ’s. A barbarian is not a barbarian, but Christ’s. Christ is all , and that too in all , who believe. The new creature is in Christ, Colossians 3:10 ; Galatians 6:15 .

Where there is (ὅπου ἔνι) Where, in the renewed condition; there is, better, as Rev., can be: ἔνι strengthened from ἐν in signifies not merely the fact but the impossibility: there is no room for. Greek, Jew, etc. Compare Galatians 3:28. National, ritual, intellectual, and social diversities are specified. The reference is probably shaped by the conditions of the Colossian church, where the form of error was partly Judaistic and ceremonial, insisting on circumcision; where the pretense of superior knowledge affected contempt for the rude barbarian, and where the distinction of master and slave had place as elsewhere. Circumcision For the circumcised. So Romans 4:12; Ephesians 2:11; Philippians 3:3. Barbarian, Scythian See on 1 Corinthians 14:11. The distinction is from the Greek and Roman point of view, where the line is drawn by culture, as between the Jew and the Greek it was drawn by religious privilege. From the former stand-point the Jew ranked as a barbarian. Scythian. "More barbarous than the barbarians" (Bengel). Hippocrates describes them as widely different from the rest of mankind, and like to nothing but themselves, and gives an absurd description of their physical peculiarities. Herodotus describes them as living in wagons, offering human sacrifices, scalping and sometimes flaying slain enemies, drinking their blood, and using their skulls for drinking-cups.

When a king dies, one of his concubines is strangled and buried with him, and, at the close of a year, fifty of his attendants are strangled, disemboweled, mounted on dead horses, and left in a circle round his tomb. The Scythians passed through Palestine on their road to Egypt, b.c. 600, and a trace of their invasion is supposed to have existed in the name Scythopolis, by which Beth Shean was known in Christ's time. Ezekiel apparently refers to them (38, 39) under the name Gog, which reappears in Revelation. See on Revelation 20:8.

(11) Where there is neither . . . —This passage naturally suggests comparison with Galatians 3:28 . “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ.” In comparing the passages (passing by the insertion here of “circumcision nor uncircumcision,” which is simply explanatory of “Jew nor Greek”) we notice in this—(1) The insertion of “barbarian, Scythian.” This insertion is clearly intended to rebuke that pride of intellect, contemptuous of the unlearned, which lay at the root of Gnosticism. The “barbarian” was simply the foreigner (comp. 1Corinthians 14:11 ); the “Scythian” was the savage, towards whom the contempt implied for the “barbarian” assumed explicitness, and reached its climax. (2) The omission of “male nor female.” In the Oriental society, as in Galatia, the dignity of women needed to be asserted against supposed inferiority.

In Greek or Græcised society, as at Corinth, Ephesus, and Colossæ, the new “freedom” of the gospel was apt to be abused to license; hence it was rather the “subjection” of women which needed to be suggested. (Comp. 1Corinthians 11:3-16 ; 1Corinthians 14:34-35 ; Ephesians 5:22-24 ; and 1Timothy 2:11-15 .) (3) Whereas in the Galatian Epistle the stress is laid on the unity of all with one another in Christ, here (as usual) the great truth is that “Christ is all things and in all.” In 1Corinthians 15:28 we have this phrase applied to God, in contradistinction to the office of the Son in His mediatorial kingdom. Here it is in reference to that kingdom that it is used. In it Christ (see Ephesians 1:23 ) “fills all in all;” and by His universal mediation all “life is hid with Him in God.” He is all that can be needed, and that both “in all things” and “in all persons.” But under both aspects the catholicity of the gospel is equally brought out; here by the direct union of all alike with Christ, there by the resulting unity of all with one another.

11. Where—Translate, "Wherein," namely, in the sphere of the renewed man. neither … nor … nor … nor—Translate as Greek, "There is no such thing as Greek and Jew (the difference of privilege between those born of the natural seed of Abraham and those not, is abolished), circumcision and uncircumcision (the difference of legal standing between the circumcised and uncircumcised is done away, Ga 6:15)—bondman, freeman." The present Church is one called out of the flesh, and the present world-course (Eph 2:2), wherein such distinctions exist, to life in the Spirit, and to the future first resurrection: and this because Satan has such power now over the flesh and the world. At Christ's coming when Satan shall no longer rule the flesh and the world, the nations in the flesh, and the word in millennial felicity, shall be the willing subjects of Christ and His glorified saints (Da 7:14, 22, 27; Lu 19:17, 19; Re 20:1-6; 3:21). Israel in Canaan was a type of that future state when the Jews, so miraculously preserved distinct now in their dispersion, shall be the central Church of the Christianized world. As expressly as Scripture abolishes the distinction of Jew and Greek now as to religious privileges, so does it expressly foretell that in the coming new order of things, Israel shall be first of the Christian nations, not for her own selfish aggrandizement, but for their good, as the medium of blessing to them.

Finally, after the millennium, the life that is in Christ becomes the power which transfigures nature, in the time of the new heaven and the new earth; as, before, it first transfigured the spiritual, then the political and social world. Scythian—heretofore regarded as more barbarian than the barbarians. Though the relation of bond and free actually existed, yet in relation to Christ, all alike were free in one aspect, and servants of Christ in another (1Co 7:22; Ga 3:28). Christ is all—Christ absorbs in Himself all distinctions, being to all alike, everything that they need for justification, sanctification, and glorification (1Co 1:30; 3:21-23; Ga 2:20). in all—who believe and are renewed, without distinction of person; the sole distinction now is, how much each draws from Christ. The unity of the divine life shared in by all believers, counterbalances all differences, even as great as that between the polished "Greek" and the rude "Scythian." Christianity imparts to the most uncivilized the only spring of sound, social and moral culture.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew - See this fully explained in the notes at Galatians 3:28 . The meaning here is, that all are on a level; that there is no distinction of nation in the church; that all are to be regarded and treated as brethren, and that therefore no one should be false to another, or lie to another. Circumcision nor uncircumcision - No one is admitted into that blessed society because he is circumcised; no one is excluded because he is uncircumcised. That distinction is unknown, and all are on a level. Barbarian - No one is excluded because he is a barbarian, or because he lives among those who are uncivilized, and is unpolished in his manners; see the word "barbarian" explained in the notes at Romans 1:14. Scythian - This word does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. The name Scythian is applied in ancient geography to the people who lived on the north and northeast of the Black and Caspian seas, a region stretchings indefinitely into the unknown countries of Asia. They occupied the lands now peopled by the Monguls and Tartars. The name was almost synonymous with barbarian, for they were regarded as a wild and savage race. The meaning here is, that even such a ferocious and uncivilized people were not excluded from the gospel, but they were as welcome as any other, and were entitled to the same privileges as others. No one was excluded because he belonged to the most rude and uncivilized portion of mankind.

Bond nor free - See the notes at Galatians 3:28. But Christ is all, and in all - The great thing that constitutes the uniqueness of the church is, that Christ is its Saviour, and that all are his friends and followers. Its members lay aside all other distinctions, and are known only as his friends. They are not known as Jews and Gentiles; as of this nation or that; as slaves or freemen, but they are known as Christians; distinguished from all the rest of mankind as the united friends of the Redeemer; compare the notes at Galatians 3:28.