NOTES for Col 3:12-25

Speaking about spiritual life, Paul draws attention to the relationships that form the basis of both the family and the social environment of his era: marital relationships (vv. 18-19), relationships of children with parents (vv. 20-21), and relationships of slaves with their masters (3:22-4:1). The apostle's turn to this theme might be considered quite traditional: after all, the prophets too often turned in their preaching to social themes. But for them it was never an end in itself; the prophets only emphasized the need to follow the Torah not only in personal life but also in public life, considering the Torah an entirely adequate basis for the ordering of society. One could say that Paul too follows this prophetic tradition. But he goes even further. Indeed, the prophets who lived before the coming into the world of the Messiah, Christ, spoke of what was available in their time: the path of righteousness and following the Torah as the means that allowed one to walk that path.

Paul, however, speaks of something greater: the path of the Kingdom, which opened to humanity only with the coming of Christ. It is no accident that he introduces the discussion of relationships in the family and in society with a description of the life of the Kingdom, at the center of which stands the mention of the love that unites its citizens (vv. 12-17). For in the Kingdom love is no longer simply a relationship binding people together, as it is in our world, still not transformed. In the Kingdom, love is also the spiritual environment in which all relationships exist, a kind of spiritual substance without which there is no Kingdom. And the Church, as a community of people living in the Kingdom, is called to be the manifestation of the Kingdom in our transforming world, which has not yet been transformed to the end. It must become for everyone an example showing that it is already possible to build relationships according to the laws of the Kingdom, and that no social structures in themselves are an obstacle to this, provided that people are truly bound to one another by the relationships of love proper to citizens of the Kingdom. Then everyone seeking an alternative to the laws of the untransformed world will see that such an alternative exists, that one can live by the laws of the Kingdom here and now.

The expression “put on,” which the apostle Paul uses, can stir our imagination. To put something on means to abide in it. We then find ourselves inside a kind of covering that filters our interaction with the world around us. Paul lists some qualities, or properties, of this filter, placing love above all as the perfect expression of perfect relationships. Within this covering Paul establishes a state of peace that comes from God, which calls to mind the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov about the Christian life as the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of peace. And this is what passes through the covering to the heart: the word of Christ. Then everything that comes from us becomes a deed done in the name of the Lord and thanksgiving to God. It seems that this thought is developed in the passage from the Gospel of Luke, which speaks of the deeds to which we are called, deeds of love, because it is precisely through love that we become like the Father, drawing nearer to His perfection (compare verse 36 with Matt. 5:48).

More often people call love a certain feeling, an internal sensation of agreeability from the memory of someone or something, joy upon meeting with this someone or something, and the sharp desire to possess it. Maybe that is why it comes to hear all the time from very various persons something as «I don’t feel loving God or I can’t love my enemy».

All that the Bible says about love is completely different. Love is not feeling, nor sensation, although it can be accompanied by these. Love is not something which lives in the soulful, but rather in the spiritual sphere, and its bearer can be only a personality.

Love is a special means of the spiritual life appearing in relationships and actions. Which? But those, when a certain other person, towards whom are directed these relationships and actions, is more important for me, than myself. God's love is really such, besides, God is love (1Jn 4:16).

We then understand that love is not some kind of my quality, but something superior to me. And we can in particular "put on" love, enter into it - such that all our relationships and actions are fulfilled by God's perfectness. Jesus is exactly Such, and, being bound to Him, we become partakers of this life-love.

More often people call love a certain feeling, an internal sensation of agreeability from the memory of someone or something, joy upon meeting with this someone or something, and the sharp desire to possess it. Maybe that is why it comes to hear all the time from very various persons something as «I don’t feel loving God or I can’t love my enemy».

All that the Bible says about love is completely different. Love is not feeling, nor sensation, although it can be accompanied by these. Love is not something which lives in the soulful, but rather in the spiritual sphere, and its bearer can be only a personality.

Love is a special means of the spiritual life appearing in relationships and actions. Which? But those, when a certain other person, towards whom are directed these relationships and actions, is more important for me, than myself. God's love is really such, besides, God is love (1Jn 4:16).

We then understand that love is not some kind of my quality, but something superior to me. And we can in particular "put on" love, enter into it - such that all our relationships and actions are fulfilled by God's perfectness. Jesus is exactly Such, and, being bound to Him, we become partakers of this life-love.

If to do whatsoever in the name of the Lord, then are laid on certain restrictions to the word "whatsoever". Is it possible to do, by word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ – a dirty trick? Is it possible to kill, steal, commit adultery, commit perjury?! The aspiration in itself to do something in the name of the Lord already helps us in life, because the obviously incorrect decisions, incompatible not with some formal rules, but with the personality of Jesus are rejected.

Giving thanks to God is in general the basis of the foundations of Christian life, it is especially in thanksgiving that we are farthest of the opposition to Him, we do not simply understand His will (mole, you have no choice!), but accept with pleasure the fact that it {the will} is good for us. All the plenitude of the human, filial giving thanks is already expressed in the Eucharist, in the prayer and the sacrifice of thanksgiving - Jesus Christ, which is why our biggest "thanks" will be union with Him and giving thanks by Him.

For Paul, Christian life is life in Christ in the most literal sense of the word. It unfolds in the spiritual space of the relationships that bind the Son to the Father. And all relationships among Christians, as well as their very life, must exist precisely there. The apostle speaks of peace for a reason: inner peace is inseparable from abiding in the Kingdom as the space of the relationship of the Father and the Son.

But the fullness of the Kingdom is revealed in love. In the Kingdom, love becomes not merely a relationship; there it also becomes the environment within which all relationships exist: relationships among people, each person's relationship with God and with Christ, and finally Christ's own relationship with His heavenly Father. In itself, the Kingdom is the space of God's prevailing breath, but in the context of all interpersonal relationships possible in such a space, it is the space and environment of love.

God's breath is connected with His life, with His very existence, but when someone else is included in His existence, at the point of meeting there arises a space of love as the dynamic of that very meeting. Love itself, arising by God's will directed toward the one whom God loves, turns out to be the bridge that connects the uncreated God with all created beings loved by Him, including the human person. In relation to what cannot recognize God's will, His love is revealed as God's Wisdom, present in the world even where no one can recognize it; but in relation to a person who recognizes God's will and his own existence, it is revealed precisely as love.

And if relationships between people are built in the space of the relationships of the Kingdom, the relationships that bind the Father and the Son, then they too can only be relationships of love - not because in God's presence a person ceases to be a creature, but because in any relationships in which God participates and which He defines, it is His love that becomes predominant and forms the environment within which those relationships exist.

Such relationships cease to be purely human and become divine-human, since they are defined not only by people but also by God. This is the environment of love among Christians that Paul calls the addressees of his letter to form, whether in relationships between spouses, between children and parents, or between slaves and their masters. As long as these relationships remain purely functional, they cannot be relationships of love; but if the Kingdom comes to the forefront in each person's life, and relationships become relationships of the Kingdom, function, including social function, recedes into the background. It is precisely such relationships that the apostle speaks of in his letter to the Colossians.

If we do everything in the name of the Lord, the word “everything” is subject to certain restrictions. Can we do vile things, in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Can we kill, steal, commit adultery, or bear false witness?! The very desire to do something in the name of the Lord already helps us in life, because decisions that are plainly wrong are discarded—not because they are incompatible with some formal rules, but because they are incompatible with the very person of Jesus.

Gratitude to God is the very foundation of Christian life. It is in thanksgiving that we are furthest from opposing Him: we do not merely accept His will—as though there were no other choice—but joyfully agree that it is good for us. The whole fullness of human, filial gratitude has already been expressed in the Eucharist, in the prayer and sacrifice of thanksgiving of Jesus Christ. Our greatest “thank you,” therefore, is union with Him and thanksgiving through Him.