Homilies on Colossians — Homily 4

St. John Chrysostom

1. 0. Greeting

[[Colossians 1.21]], 22

And you, being in time past, enemies and alienated in your mind, in your evil works, yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him.

Here he goes to show that He reconciled those even who were unworthy of reconciliation. For by the saying that they were under the power of darkness, he shows the calamity in which they were. [[Colossians 1.13]] But lest, on hearing of the power of darkness, you should consider it Necessity, he adds, And you that were alienated, so that though it appear to be the same thing that he says, yet it is not so; for it is not the same thing to deliver out of the evils him that through necessity came to suffer, and him that of his own will endures. For the former indeed is worthy to be pitied, but the latter hated. But nevertheless, he says, you that are not against your wills, nor from compulsion, but with your wills, and wishes, sprang away from Him, and are unworthy of it, He has reconciled. And seeing he had made mention of the things in the heavens, he shows, that all the enmity had its origin from hence, not thence. For they indeed were long ago desirous, and God also, but you were not willing.

And throughout he is showing that the Angels had no power in the successive times, forasmuch as men continued enemies; they could neither persuade them, nor, if persuaded, could they deliver them from the devil. For neither would persuading them be any gain, except he that held them were bound; nor would binding him have been of any service, except they whom he detained were willing to return. But both of these were needed, and they could do neither of them, but Christ did both. So that even more marvelous than loosing death, is the persuading them. For the former was wholly of Himself, and the power lay wholly in Himself, but of the latter, not in Himself alone, but in us also; but we accomplish those things more easily of which the power lies in ourselves. Therefore, as being the greater, he puts it last. And he said not simply were at enmity, but were alienated, which denotes great enmity, nor yet alienated [only], but without any expectation even of returning. And enemies in your mind, he says; then the alienation had not proceeded so far as purpose only — but what? in your wicked works also. You were both enemies, he says, and you did the works of enemies.

Yet now has He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him. Again he lays down also the manner of the reconciliation, that it was in the Body, not by being merely beaten, nor scourged, nor sold, but even by dying a death the most shameful. Again he makes mention of the Cross, and again lays down another benefit. For He did not only deliver, but, as he says above, Who made us meet [[Colossians 1.12]], to the same he alludes here also. Through His death, he says, to present you holy and