NOTES for Col 2:6-7

Paul, certainly not by chance, speaks much and often about faithfulness. And the issue is not only faithfulness to God, Christ, and the Kingdom, though first of all, of course, it is that. Besides these, the issue is faithfulness to a choice once made, which sometimes turns out, paradoxical as this may sound, to be more important than faithfulness to God, Christ, or the Kingdom. Indeed, what does faithfulness to God mean? Or faithfulness to Christ? If Christianity were a new religion, or a new theology, or a new ethical teaching, everything would be simple and clear: in that case it would be enough for us to declare our adherence to the corresponding teaching and its Founder, and perhaps also to participate periodically in certain ritual events and wear some distinguishing signs. But the issue is not a new teaching and not a new religion, but a new life, life in the Kingdom that the Savior brought into the world. And in life constancy is necessary, above all the constancy of relations that determine our life priorities and are in turn determined by the system of values by which we are guided. From these elements faithfulness is formed: to friends, family, like-minded people and fellow believers, a life calling, and a chosen path. In principle such faithfulness differs in no way from that faithfulness to God and Christ without which life in the Kingdom is impossible. Faithfulness is one, and it means constancy of relations as well as the unchanging character of the system of values and life priorities. Without such faithfulness no life is possible, not only in the Kingdom but even in our untransformed world. Yet in the untransformed world one can still somehow live without that inner spiritual core which manifests itself at the level of life relations through faithfulness, though of course the existence a person would have to drag along in that case can be called life only with great reservation. But in the Kingdom one cannot remain without it for even an instant. The very spiritual space of the Kingdom is formed precisely by relations: the relations of its inhabitants with one another, their relations with Christ, and Christ's own relations with the Father. Without them there is no Kingdom. And therefore there is no Kingdom without faithfulness, without which the relations of the Kingdom are impossible.