Homily IV. Colossians i. 21, 22 “And you, being in time past, enemies and alienated768in your mind, in your evil works, yet now hath 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. (v. 13.) But lest, on hearing of “the power of darkness,” thou shouldest 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 saith, 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 hath reconciled.769 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 ye were not willing. And throughout he is showing that the Angels had no power in the successive times,770 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,”771 but “were alienated,” which de- notes great enmity, nor yet “alienated”772 [only], but without any expectation even of re- turning. “And enemies in your mind,” he says; then the alienation had not proceeded so far 768 The order of words, “enemies” and “alienated,” is here inverted as compared with the Rec. text, and the Commentary that follows here requires the common order. 769 Edd. have ἀπήλλαξε, but the Translator conjectures ἀποκατήλλαξε, which is confirmed by a ms. in Brit. M. 770 τοῖς κάτω χρόνοις, usually “latter times”; here it seems to be “down the stream of time.” One suspects ἄνω, but it may be reckoned from the Fall. 771 ἐχθραίνοντας, which is less than ἐχθρούς. 772 Here ἠλλοτριωμένους, not ἀπηλλοτριωμένους, as above. Colossians 1:21,22 485 Colossians 1:21,22