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Homily II.
Colossians i. 9, 10
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request
for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding; to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
“For this cause.” What cause? Because we heard of your faith and love, because we have
good hopes, we are hopeful to ask for future blessings also. For as in the games we cheer on
those most who are near upon gaining the victory, just so doth Paul also most exhort those
who have achieved the greater part.
“Since the day we heard it,” saith he, “we do not cease to pray for you.” Not for one day
do we pray for you, nor yet for two, nor three. Herein he both shows his love, and gives
them a gentle hint that they had not yet arrived at the end. For the words, “that ye may be
filled,” are of this significancy. And observe, I pray, the prudence of this blessed one. He
nowhere says that they are destitute of everything, but that they are deficient; everywhere
the words, “that ye may be filled,” show this. And again, “unto all pleasing, in every good
work” (ver. 11.), and again, “strengthened with all power,” and again, “unto all patience and
long-suffering”; for the constant addition of “all” bears witness to their doing well in part,
though, it might be, not in all. And, “that ye may be filled,” he saith; not, “that ye may receive,”
for they had received; but “that ye may be filled” with what as yet was lacking. Thus both
the rebuke was given without offense, and the praise did not suffer them to sink down, and
become supine, as if it had been complete. But what is, “that ye may be filled with the
knowledge of His will”? That through the Son we should be brought unto Him, and no more
through Angels. Now that ye must be brought unto Him, ye have learnt, but it remains for
you to learn this, and why He sent the Son. For had it been that we were to have been saved
by Angels,711 He would not have sent Him, would not have given Him up. “In all spiritual
wisdom,” he saith, “and understanding.” For since the philosophers deceived them; I wish
you, he saith, to be in spiritual wisdom, not after the wisdom of men. But if in order to know
the will of God, there needs spiritual wisdom; to know His Essence what it is, there is need
of continual prayers.
And Paul shows here, that since that time he has been praying, and has not yet prevailed,
and yet has not desisted; for the words, “from the day we heard it,” show this. But it implies
711 It may be asked how St. Chrysostom could use this argument, and yet speak as he does of the intercession
of Saints (see the end of Hom. vi. on the Statues, and note). The reason is, that he viewed the Saints as in the
Kingdom of Christ, and subordinate; but the error here referred to seems to have made the Angels independent
of Him, and the means of an approach to God without reference to His Atonement. St. Augustine refers to such
systems, De. Civ. Dei, lib. ix. 15, 21; x. 1, &c.
Colossians 1:9,10
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Colossians 1:9,10