Colossians 1:24
Well, we return to our study of Colossians and come to a, a deeply encouraging portion of the letter and the ministry of the Apostle Paul. You can turn in your Bibles to Colossians 1 verse 24 and we will read the section that we’re going to be in for a next couple of weeks. After opening this letter with thanksgiving and prayer, Paul sets forth to put Christ to the Colossians, to set him forth before the Colossians as the one who secured their reconciliation and now Paul has come.
He tells them he comes as Christ’s ambassador to preach Christ’s reconciliation. And though Paul personally has not been to Colossae, it is his gospel that he preached in Ephesus that provided the gospel that reached Colossae and the whole Lycus Valley, as well, including churches in Laodicea and Hierapolis. So Paul has come as Christ’s ambassador. He preaches reconciliation, and it is his aim to see the Colossians, along with other Christians and other churches to see them complete in Christ.
In a nutshell, that is the essence of the Apostolic ministry, to preach Christ and to preach him as crucified. They come as ambassadors of Christ, official representatives, delegates to minister Christ’s reconciliation to God’s people and they do so by preaching the Word of God and prayer and ministry of the Word of God in among the churches.
Because of their work, the world is now filled with the preaching of Christ and the preaching of his apostles. His reconciling work has been announced to the world, and the ambassadorships of the apostles have spawned churches all over the world, where this gospel of reconciliation is not only proclaimed and proclaimed faithfully, but it’s worked into the lives of God’s people, so that they’re transformed and they look like a reconciled people.
They look like more and more like the God whom they proclaim. And now as Paul has identified himself as a minister of the gospel, literally in Colossians 1:23, he uses the word minister or the word Deacon, that’s the literal term he uses. Paul says I was made a Deacon of this gospel, I was made a servant, a minister of this gospel and that becomes the springboard into the section before us starting in verse 24.
If you look at your Bibles, I‘ll read that section, Colossians 1:24 through chapter 2 verse 5. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I fill up what is lacking of Christ’s afflictions in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the Church, of which I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God given to me for you, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known. What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His working, which He works in me in power.
“For I want you to understand how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not seen my face in the flesh, so that their hearts may be encouraged, having been held together in love, even unto all the wealth of the full assurance of understanding, unto the full knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in the body, nevertheless I’m with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the stability of your faith in Christ.”
As you probably picked up in the hearing of that text or reading it, seeing it with your eyes, you see the repetition there of the first person, singular, I, me, my. This section is autobiographical. Paul is writing about Paul and he writes about his role as their apostle. Even though they have not seen his face in the flesh. He is their apostle. He is the apostle of the Gentiles. He writes about the nature of his Apostolic ministry, and in so doing he explains his sufferings.
We all know his sufferings are the stuff of legend. We heard some of that in this morning’s scripture reading from 2 Corinthians, chapters 4 and 5. So what is the reason for this autobiographical section? That’s the question that we seek to answer today. We want to understand the purpose of this section, and the key to that understanding is to interpret verse 24 correctly; to understand not only what it says, but what it means by what it says, because this sets up the whole section from verse 24, chapter 1, all the way through chapter 2, verse 5.
Because it’s so important, we need to uncover something fundamental in verse 24 about Paul and his apostleship and interpreting that verse accurately is going to help us clarify the rest of the passage. And clarifying the passage is going to promote our full joy in our salvation in Christ. So yes, this is going to be one of those one verse sermons, but trust me, this verse is as fascinating as it is profitable and encouraging in setting our perspective on the Christian life.
I’ll give you just two points this morning. Got one briefer one and a second, it’s really long. All right, number one: Paul’s perspective in enduring sufferings. Paul’s perspective in enduring sufferings. Let me read the verse again, chapter 1, verse 24. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I fill up what is lacking of Christ’s afflictions in my flesh on behalf of His body, which is the church.”
He says I rejoice in my sufferings and I keep moving ahead so that more come. Who thinks like that? Well, he does. And I guarantee that once we come through this entire section, you’re going to think the same way. Should God be gracious to us all and give us an understanding of what makes this guy tick, why he says this, the perspective that he has.
I rejoice in my sufferings, and by the way, I’m done about health, wealth, and prosperity in this life. I keep on going so that I could fill up what is lacking of Christ’s afflictions in my flesh. I do more, so that I may bring on more affliction, physical suffering. Do you think like that? I didn’t think so.
It’s not natural for us to think like this. In fact, when we do think like this, we’re either insane or God has done a great work in us to give us a perspective that we would not have apart from his word, his spirit, and the example of our apostles. Apostle Paul, in particular, who’s modelled after the Lord Jesus Christ himself, because “He, for the joy set before Him, endure the cross, despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God.” It’s through suffering that we emerge in glory. Many of us, we have to admit, we want the glory now and we want to avoid as much suffering as possible. Isn’t that true?
Suffering here, the word suffering is kind of the broader category. It has to do with that which is both external and internal. Affliction is external, mainly external. It’s joined to the words, in my flesh, and so Paul is very clearly specifying here that these are external physical afflictions that he’s talking about.
And they’re afflictions and sufferings that are not brought on by his own stupidity. They’re not brought on by his own sin. They’re not brought on by just normal difficulties in life. His afflictions, his suffering, are brought on because of Christ. So let’s not baptize all of our hurts, sufferings, problems, as if all of them are suffering for Christ, because many of them are just suffering for our own sin.
That’s not what Paul’s talking about here. He’s talking about suffering for the sake of Christ, for the sake of his ministry to the church. He’s talking about these afflictions that are Christ’s afflictions, that in some way he’s filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
We heard Paul earlier, as we read 2 Corinthians 4 and 5, we heard him speak generally of suffering and affliction in our Scripture reading, but it’s in 2 Corinthians Chapter 11 and verses 23 and following that, Paul gets far more specific about those things, far more concrete about the level of suffering, the difficulty that he’s endured. And he’s just giving us the highlights. He’s just giving us the highlight reel. There’s a whole lot more going on in his life between camera shots of his suffering, in the context of his life.
As Paul speaks, in 2 Corinthians Chapter 11, he’s getting more specific and concrete about his suffering and he’s telling about that suffering and that affliction in the context of having to defend his ministry from the spurious charges of these satanically charged false ministers who are trying to say that they’re the true apostles and they’re the true ministers of the gospel, but they’re really just ministers of Satan.
They’re coming as ministers of righteousness and ministers of light, but they’re far from it. You can look in your Bibles if you want to and go to 2 Corinthians Chapter 11, and I’m going to start reading in verse 18. Read a chunk of that. Paul says, “Since many boast according to the flesh,” he’s talking about false ministers of his own day. And by the way, folks, we have a lot of false ministers doing the same thing today, boasting in the flesh, touting their numbers, touting the crowds, touting their money, building big buildings, drawing attention to themselves, and their own glory.
It’s nothing new, “since many boast according to the flesh, 2 Corinthians 11:18, “I’ll boast also. For you, being so wise, are bearing the foolish gladly. For you bear it if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes advantage of you, if anyone exalts himself, or anyone even hits you in the face. To my shame I must say that we’ve been weak by comparison. But in whatever respect anyone else is daring-I speak in foolishness-I’m just as daring myself. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s seed? Well, so am I. Are they ministers of Christ?-I speak as if insane-I more so.”
How do we know that, Paul? I mean, they’re saying it and you’re saying it. How do we know that you’re a minister of Christ? “In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, in beatings without number, in frequent danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked-a night and day I’ve spent in the deep.
“I’ve been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers on the sea, dangers from among false brothers.” Notice the plural dangers, dangers, dangers.
There’s a lot that’s not in the record book, but God knows. “I’ve been in labor and hardship,” verse 27, “in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst, often hungry and cold, without enough clothing. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who’s weak without my being weak?” and “Who’s made to stumble without my burning concern.”
That right there is the heart of pastoral ministry, the heart of every true pastor and elder and shepherd, that none but those men really know fully. So he says in verse 30, “If I have to boast, I’ll boast of what pertains to my weakness.” Knowing what Paul suffered physically and spiritually, relationally, emotionally, I find his perspective of rejoicing in suffering so remarkable.
And so often his perspective challenges me as a rebuke to my own heart. We’re so prone, and I’m using the first-person plural there to hide myself. I’m so prone. We’re also prone, aren’t we, to complaining over our suffering. We who are so used to luxury and convenience and plenty. We could be so soft, petty, whining about our hardships, thinking that we’ve been unjustly treated and hard done by. Have we forgotten the words of our Lord about what attends those who follow him as disciples?
It’s he who said, “Blessed are you when people hate you,” Luke 6:22, “and when people exclude you, and insult you, and slander your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” If you’re not enduring or experiencing any of that, maybe it’s because you’re not being clear. Because if you’re clear and you’re truthful and you speak out of what you truly believe, it’s going to look like courage or foolhardiness. But it’s going to bring hatred and insult and exclusion and slandering rather than complaining and whining when that’s the inevitable result.
Jesus said you’re to be glad in that day. Glad, you’re to leap for joy. Why? Because you’re reward in heaven is great. Seems to me that the Apostle Paul has deeply imbibed this doctrine teaching of our Lord. He knew the false prophets were lauded and praised in their own day. He knew that false pastors and teachers in his day and in ours, they’re the ones who call the tune. They’re the ones who have the influence. They’re the ones who draw large crowds and garner popular support.
But true prophets, true pastors, true teachers, true shepherds who actually administer and work the word of God into the church and exhort people and admonish, they’re rejected in their own time. They’re despised in their own generation. And so we see suffering is the benchmark of a true ministry.
Now, read from 2 Corinthians 11. Colossae is not Corinth, and so the situation in this letter to the Colossians is not the same as the situation in the Corinthian epistles. But still some have assumed that Paul is here defending his imprisonment as he gets into this autobiographical section.
False teachers in Colossae, to discredit his gospel, they point to his imprisonment as failure, as if the kind of religion that he preaches is really the road to nowhere, and there may be something to that. It’s true that Paul thinks that it is important to explain his circumstances and his suffering, but I believe that he does not do so with reference to the false teachers, at least not primarily.
For example, he says that Tychicus in Colossians 4:7 to 9, you can look at it there. He says, Tychicus will make known to you all my affairs and he’s coming with this purpose so that you may know about our circumstances.” And he says, “Tychicus, along with Onesimus, they’re going to come to them and inform them about the whole situation here. Where is he? He’s in Rome.
He’s in prison in Rome and so he’s going to have them filled in. He wants them to understand, to know exactly what’s going on with him. But Paul’s suffering is not something that he is attempting to defend in this letter. It’s not something he’s embarrassed about. It’s not something he feels the need to explain away or defend in light of a spurious charge of a false teacher. Quite the contrary, Paul’s suffering is the chief badge of his apostleship.
Suffering for the gospel, need to be clear about that, suffering for the gospel is the clear and unmistakable mark of his certification as an apostle, of his accreditation as a true apostle of Christ. It’s the medal of Christ, that’s pinned on his chest, which is why he signs off in the last verse. He says, “the greeting is in my own hand. Paul,” then he adds this command, “Remember my chains.” Paul wants the Colossians to hear the rattling of the chains as he signs his name to the epistle, especially so, as he writes the final words of the letter. “Grace be with you.”
Contrary to what we find in today’s churches, all popular religion, even evangelical religion, Paul wants the Colossians, and by extension all of us, as well, he wants us to know that there is a clear connection between grace and suffering, between the gospel and the hardship that comes because of the gospel. The grace of the gospel is not on display in triumphant parades of power and glory, not in this time, not before Christ’s second coming.
The grace of the gospel is made known and on display in times of suffering, in times of great pain, and deep hurt, and significant hardship. We used to have a saying in the SEAL teams, “Everyone wants to be a frog man on a sunny day.” It’s not the times of ease where strength is needed. It’s not in times of comfort that the metal of the man is tested and that his training and skill and valor are proven. It’s in times of hardship, burning sun, freezing rain, extremes of climate, weather, times of biting hunger, bitter cold, sleeplessness.
Well, it’s in the same way, that the gospel Paul preached is not a gospel for the beautiful and the rich and famous or the righteous, so-called. It’s a gospel for the poor, for those who are held captive by sin and the devil. It’s a gospel for those whose lives don’t look very good. It’s a gospel for those who have hurt themselves by their own sin and hurt a lot of other people too. It’s a gospel for those who are blind and have stumbled around in the dark, for those who are downtrodden and weak.
It’s a gospel that’s not on display in the strength and the capability of men. In fact, it’s perverted and distorted beyond all recognition by the power and the wealth and the charm and the eloquence of men, so that it becomes no gospel at all. And preachers who preach that kind of a health, wealth, prosperity message, and there are all forms of it. There are conservative, reformed forms of it too.
Those who preach that kind of a gospel, they are adulterating the word of God. The gospel is only clear when its power is utterly unaided by men, so that the glory of the grace of God is seen as being of him and him alone, and shines forth clearly. It’s what Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 11:30, when he wrote, “If I have to boast, I’ll boast of what pertains to my weakness, not what can be explained by my strength.”
Paul says the same thing again in the next chapter of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 12:5, and again in verse 9, he says, “I will boast in my weakness.” Why Paul? It’s so that the power of the grace of God will be put on full display in my weakness. I have this treasure of the gospel that’s put into me like a treasure in a clay pot. And you get to that treasure, not by regarding the pot, but by breaking it open and grabbing that treasure.
“He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.’” And then he says this. Paul says, “most gladly, therefore, I’ll rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I’m well content with weaknesses, with insults, distresses, persecutions and hardships for the sake of Christ, for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
So this autobiographical section at the start of Colossians is quite intentional. It’s perfectly timed. It’s perennially relevant, starting with the Colossian Church and extending to our church as well. We are all, at all times, in every place, in every age. We are all susceptible to prefer a theology of glory over a theology of the cross.
We’re all attracted to all kinds of false glories. And as a matter of our fallen habit, we want to boast in the flesh. We want to brag and kind of be seen as connected to what may be seen as glorious by the world and counted and numbered. And the markers of success are proved by the data, proof of relevance and influence and effectiveness. We can measure it, we can sum it up. We can present in charts and tables and graphs, and then we use words like this. Look how God is blessing us.
We need to be very wary, beloved, about the allure of fleshly relevance and worldly success, about the desire to impress others with what matters to the world, so that they will esteem us. So they’ll think Jesus is cool, so they’ll see he gets us. So they’ll think our religion is worth following, so we can keep them from thinking we’re foolish, simple or unsophisticated. Wouldn’t want that.
Remember beloved, after all, we worship a crucified Christ. We follow a savior whose claim to fame, it’s rather ironic, isn’t it, he died a shameful death on a cross. That’s his claim to fame, he died. And not just died, he didn’t just fall into a ditch, break his neck. No, the whole world gathered against him, put him on a cross and said crucify him. You know this is going to be charged to your kids. Yeah, “His blood be on us and our children forever.” Do it.
We worship him who did not save himself and proclaim he’s the savior of the world. And he is the one who said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” And so here is his Apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Here’s Paul doing that. Paul is here ministering in tandem with this self-same Christ and he too sets forth this exemplary pattern of glory through suffering.
So that’s Paul’s perspective toward the suffering that he endures for Christ. And we’re going to have the joy of discovering along these next couple weeks what informs this perspective. How does he get there? And better for us, how do we get there from here? Because this attitude and this perspective, it’s unbeatable, in that little enumerated list of his sufferings and afflictions.
Remember that one where he says, I was stoned and left for dead? You know what he did when he revived? He got up and marched right back into the city. Started preaching again. That’s an indomitable spirit. Do we attribute that to Paul as such a great dude and how powerful, he was doing like 4:00 AM workouts and keeping his body fit, so that he can get out there, get stoned, and then march right back in and do again; repeat this very same behavior that brought the stoning in the first place?
That’s Paul’s perspective, but it’s in this language that we see next in verse 24, of, “on behalf of his body, which is the church,” that we see he endures suffering as an apostolic directive. So I want to give you a second point and as I said, this will be the long one. Number two: Paul’s directive for enduring sufferings. Paul’s directive for enduring sufferings.
You may see it or you may not. You may detect it. Maybe you’ve read through this before and you kind of wonder, but this really is one of the hardest verses in this epistle to interpret correctly. Commentators, all of them that I read, really, if they brought it up, they acknowledge this point: Misinterpretations of this verse have led to erroneous and disastrous views.
And the failure to understand what Paul is saying, it robs us all of a very important Christian principle, which we’ll come to a bit later. But for now, let’s talk about what this does not mean. We can’t fully expand the critique. I can just give you the highlights.
But first of all, it’s by a wrong interpretation of this verse that Roman Catholic theologians have developed the church’s doctrine of indulgences. The thought went like this, if Paul by his sufferings could join his afflictions to Christ’s afflictions, indeed if he could complete what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions, and together the afflictions of Christ and those of Paul were for the church, then they say, here’s what follows.
Several things follow. Number one, Christ’s atonement did not remit all punishment, but only eternal punishment, temporal afflictions, physical afflictions, those remain. Christ’s atonement didn’t remit all punishment, only eternal punishment. Second, further merit is needed to bring us to full and complete salvation. And then third, by Paul’s example here, well, the saints, they can contribute the merit of their own sufferings and afflictions into the treasury of the Church.
The gospel Paul preached… is a gospel for the poor, for those who are held captive by sin and the devil. It’s a gospel for those whose lives don’t look very good.” Travis Allen
And so through indulgences, that is their super added merit, they got merit of their own afflictions applied to themselves and then anything extra can be put into the treasury of merit along with Christ and Mary and the saints and Paul and others. And from that treasury of the church, temporal punishments can be remitted, time in purgatory can be reduced. The saints then can enter into their full and final salvation. You say, how did they get all of that out of this verse? Very torturedly.
You’re going to find this doctrine and what I just explained, briefly explained and defended, in Colossians 1:24, used as a basis for the doctrine of indulgences. You can find it clearly laid out on the Catholic Answers website. This verse is cited as justification, but it’s convoluted. The convoluted and tortured path that they take to get to that interpretation, that’s not explained.
Listen to teach that any punishments remain for those who trust in Jesus Christ. Any punishments which are attached to our sin, temporal or otherwise, is abhorrent to the teaching of the entire New Testament, including Paul’s teaching, which they here erroneously rest out of its meaning and they cite it to justify a terrible doctrine. It’s by faith in Christ and by faith alone, adding no works of our own or the works of any other that were reconciled.
As Colossians 1:22 says, “It’s in the body of His flesh through death, so that Christ should present us before God, holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” It’s on his merits, not ours. It’s because of his suffering and not ours. As JB Lightfoot says, “The satisfaction provided in his suffering” quote, “was one full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.”
“And in this sense, there could be no husterema,” that is the word for, that which is lacking. “There could be no, that which is lacking of Christ’s sufferings. For Christ’s sufferings being different in kind from those of His servants, the two are incommensurable.”
In other words, that is to say, what Christ suffered, it’s different than what Paul suffered. What Christ suffered is for the satisfaction of God’s wrath for sins, including all the just punishment of those sins, absolving all the guilt of all of our sins, and also the suffering, all the shame of all of our sins, an incomparable and unimaginable degree of suffering by our Lord for us. So there is no punishment, temporal, eternal, otherwise left for our sins.
So this Roman Catholic doctrine of indulgences has diminished the full and complete sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It’s degraded his suffering, calling it insufficient and they’ve grounded their teaching in a very wrong interpretation of Colossians 1:24. Another thing they get wrong is in thinking that the word affliction, thlipsis, is the word in Greek, that affliction applies to Christ’s sufferings for our sins.
That it applies, the word thlipsis, applies to his atoning sacrifice. It doesn’t. Thlipsis is used a lot in the New Testament, but never to refer to Christ’s salvific suffering, never to refer to his atonement, never to refer to his suffering for sins and Paul makes it clear here by the use of this word thlipsis, which is intentional.
The literal expression here is the afflictions of Christ, not the sufferings of Christ. And I don’t want it confused, thinking somehow he’s talking about something lacking in the atonement. No, the literal expression is the afflictions of Christ, the thlipsis Christ. So he’s referring here to the non-salvific physical suffering that attended him in his ministry.
So whatever Paul is here filling up in his ministry, it’s got nothing to do with the need to satisfy divine wrath. It’s got nothing to do with the need to satisfy divine justice, to pay penalties, eternal, temporal, otherwise; Christ did it all. And Paul rejoices to unpack the assurances of that in chapter 2, verse 6 and following. That, in fact, is the bulk of the letter.
Now, I don’t want to preach the second chapter to you just yet, but I’m tempted to. My indignation has been aroused by this horrid teaching on indulgences, however, since they have desecrated the beauty of Colossians 1:24, as if it did teach on indulgences, well, let’s use our energies better. Let’s use our energy in our effort to recover this verses’ true meaning and extract from it the encouragement that we can find for ourselves.
So what exactly is Paul saying here about his sufferings, and how exactly does he in his flesh fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions? And perhaps more basic than that, how is it that we would say anything is to be seen or said is lacking in what Christ suffered? How is it that we avoid, ourselves, the same error of the Roman Catholics? That’s a good and right instinct, a sentiment shared by all Protestant commentators to avoid the errors of the Roman Catholic Church.
And yet, as you go through Protestant commentators, we find their explanations differ, and they differ, because it’s a hard verse. Some go back to Paul’s conversion encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, and they see this in Acts Chapter 9, as what Jesus predicted when he told Paul, Acts 9:16 “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Now although that’s certainly true, we have to ask the question, when we bring it to Colossians 1:24. How does this explain how Paul’s sufferings can make up for its so-called lack in Christ’s afflictions? Doesn’t answer that question, does it? That view is while it’s saying true things, it’s not helpful.
Others go to the grammar. They identify the genitive, of Christ as a qualitative genitive. So Paul’s sufferings qualitatively resemble the sufferings that Christ endured. Again, true thought, valid observation. But how does this explain some lack in Christ’s afflictions that Paul’s suffering makes up for? Again, that doesn’t.
And I just want to put a parentheses in here and say, by way of footnote, that it is true that Paul does suffer in a way that resembles the suffering of Christ, in fact, as I’ve said and I said earlier, anytime we are very clear about the gospel, anytime we actually live out the implications of the gospel, oh, and especially this, anytime we call others to obey the gospel and live by its implications, we will suffer in a way that resembles the suffering of Christ, not as atoning suffering for sins, but the suffering of his life in ministry.
He was not treated well, was he, by the Pharisees, by the religious. He was hounded, dogged at all times in his steps, by religious leaders, Pharisees as he got closer to the temple and the Sadducees and the chief priests and all them, they felt the heat. It’s kind of what eventuated in his crucifixion. The clearer we are, the more we live according to his life, the more we preach and teach others to do the same, the more we’re going to draw the same kind of fire.
But again, that’s not what this is saying. The most popular view that I’ve heard and read is that Paul representing all believers here. He shares in a set amount of sufferings and that amount has been predetermined by God for his believers. These predetermined sufferings are what Paul here calls the afflictions of Christ. They’re not personally suffered by Christ, so the view goes, and yet he feels them nonetheless.
It’s because he identifies with the suffering of his people, and thus he himself suffers with us. And that idea, I don’t know about you, but it kind of makes me feel good that Christ, in my suffering and affliction, in my hurt, my pain, kind of feels it with me. I really like that sense of camaraderie.
To justify this view, they go back to the Damascus Rd. When Jesus said to Saul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Remember, he breathed out threats and murder and perpetuated the imprisonment and rounding up the disciples and throwing them in prison. Some of them died. So these threats and murder, that’s all perpetrated on the disciples of Jesus Christ, they’re felt in some way by Christ.
So is that the right view? No, because it really does create more problems than it solves. Here’s the problem. How does the risen ascended Lord Jesus, the one who is now in a state of glory, who is no longer in a state of humiliation and therefore, he is no longer suffering.
Remember his suffering, all of it ended with death on the cross. He’s now in a state of eternal glorification. Even in his flesh, his glorified resurrected flesh, his new life, a glorified life, it’s now in an improved state. He no longer suffers because suffering is associated with this humiliation, not his glorification. So how can the glorified Lord suffer, even if it is in identification with us.
As sweet as that may sound, how can that be? It can’t be. Theologically, christologically, eschatologically, that view is a biblical impossibility and just to clear up what Jesus actually said in confronting Saul when he said, why are you persecuting me? Jesus does identify with Christians there, very clearly, and he identifies so closely that any persecutions against Christians are really a persecution against him. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Jesus was personally suffering and that he felt the affliction physically.
He simply states the fact, what it is that Saul has done so that Saul knows the seriousness of his sins so that he will be floored by his tragic error and he can confess his sins and repent of them and be forgiven by Christ and redeployed as his apostle. Moving ahead.
There are elements of truth in all these views, but they all seem to be kind of dancing around the center without hitting the bullseye. And one key to the right interpretation of this verse is to recognize this begins a section, as I said, that is autobiographical. Paul is writing here about Paul, not about you and me. He’s writing about Paul.
That is to say what Paul says about himself as an apostle, about his Apostolic ministry, it’s unique to him. It’s unique to his calling, his role, just as our Lord’s calling in ministry is unique to him. That’s why there’s only one sacrifice for sins. It’s his. No one else can step in and atone for sins. Only he can.
Do we look at Jesus dying on the cross for sins and say, favoritism! He got all the atoning, suffering, leaving nothing for us. That’s crazy talk, right? I glory in the fact that he is the only savior and so do you. So what’s unique to Christ that is his and his alone to bear. We see the same by comparison. We see the same with Paul. There are things associated with an apostle that are his and his alone to bear. There are, to be sure, elements in the ministries of Jesus the Christ and of Paul the Apostle that we seek to imitate.
Aspects of their lives, there are examples we seek to follow, even elements of suffering for the sake of Christ that we will feel if we’re more and more like Christ. But they, Christ, his apostles, utterly unique. Their callings are their own, and aspects of their ministries are non-repeatable. They belong to them and them alone.
Just as by way of an example, take some of Jesus sayings to the Twelve in the upper room. I’ve heard Christians speak as if they can claim some of these very specific sayings in John 14 to 16 as promises for themselves today, and in so doing they are failing to interpret those verses rightly.
They failed to recognize the unique word to the apostles. For example, Jesus told the Twelve in John 14:26, “that when the Spirit comes, He will teach you all things, and he will bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” Can we claim that today is a promise of perfect recall or is that a promise for the sake of the apostles and their unique ministry to preach this word of reconciliation and be as ambassadors and by the way, author Scripture.
Jesus said in John 16:13 to 14, “The Holy Spirit will reveal the future to them, reveal the future to them. He’ll disclose to you what is to come. He’ll take of mine and He’ll disclose it to you.” Now is that a promise for all Christians today? Can we all claim a gift of predictive prophecy by the Holy Spirit? Or is Jesus’ word here specifically for his apostles, men with unique ministries?
Granted, predictive prophecy is a gift by the Holy Spirit to complete Christ’s revelation to the church. I’ve heard some crazy, crazy ideas in my time that have no origin whatsoever in the Holy Spirit, but they’ve all been baptized by John 14:26 and John 16:13-14. Promises of Jesus to his apostles are not meant to legitimize the ravings of false teachers today, or misinformed Christians either, but they often are.
All that is just to illustrate, so that we can acknowledge that the Apostle Paul has a unique role in the redemptive plan of God in Christ and Paul, as were the Twelve, Paul was an extension of the ministry of Christ. He’s chosen to be Christ’s unique instrument to bring reconciliation to its completion.
Look again at the text starting in verse 24. How many times Paul uses that first person singular. He says, “I rejoice in my sufferings, afflictions in my flesh.” That continues in verse 25, “I was made a minister. The stewardship was given to me so that I might carry out the preaching.” Skip down to verse 29, “For this purpose I also labor striving by his working worked in me in power.”
Then in Colossians 2:1, “it’s the great struggle I have on your behalf. And for all who have not seen my face in the flesh, and although I am absent in the body,” verse 5, “I am with you in spirit.” Paul’s being really clear here, isn’t he? And all through this section, that what he is writing, it pertains to him, even if we see implications from his words for ourselves, which we should, even if we find some ways that we can apply this to our own lives.
Paul’s immediate aim is to set forth his own distinctly Apostolic calling and role in ministry to the Colossians and to us. So having narrowed that down, having laid that down as a key, let’s return to try to answer this question, how does Paul fill up what is lacking of Christ’s afflictions in his flesh on behalf of the church, which is his body, by which he means the church universal?
How is Paul doing this? We start with that verb in verse 24, I fill up. I fill up, it’s the verb antanapleroo, and usually that verb is translated, I fill up, but it can also be translated as, I make up, as in, I supplement. He’s speaking in terms of supplementary. Lightfoot put it that way in kind of an expanded paraphrase on this verse.
I like this paraphrase of Lightfoot, even if I would take his interpretation a little bit further. But here’s how he put this verse. Verse 24, “Now when I see the full extent of God’s mercy, now when I ponder over His mighty work of reconciliation, I cannot choose but to rejoice in my sufferings. Yes, I Paul the persecutor. I Paul the feeble and sinful, I’m permitted to supplement. I do not shrink from the Word to supplement the afflictions of Christ, despite all that he underwent. He, the Master, has left something for me, the servant, to undergo. So my flesh is privileged to suffer for his body, his spiritual body, the Church.”
The translation, supplement, to make up, gets us a little bit closer, but there’s still further to go. There’s another translation for antanapleroo, and it’s to render the verb as saying, I complete, I perfect, as in bringing something to completion, that which is not yet complete. Put that together with the concept of that which is lacking. We’re getting really close. Pictures of Jesus enduring the beginning of the afflictions of Christ and then of his apostles, and here Paul in particular; apostles enduring the rest of the afflictions of Christ.
Jesus starts it, Paul finishes it. It’s Paul and his ministry in particular to the Gentiles, that brings them to completion. As I’ve been trying to answer this question, this perplexity about verse 24 for myself, I found great help in Greg Beal’s commentary. He cites a recent lexical study from 2015.
I didn’t have it when I first went through these verses back in 2003 for myself, but 2015, there’s a recent lexical study on the verb antanapleroo, very unique word, a hapax legomenon is what it’s called, used just once in the New Testament, right here, Colossians 1:24.
But the consensus of antanapleroo, the verb, it used to be that the word means, filling up what’s lacking. Okay, so we’ve said that, but recent research into the contemporary Greek literature and how this word was used more broadly kind of expands our understanding of the sense of this verb, gives us two more particulars about how we understand this verb.
First, we’ve come to see, that which fills up what lacks, it comes from another source other than the original source. You’re like, wait, I’m trying to write that down, don’t worry about it. Second, what’s added, which is the same contribution as the first, brings to completion what the first lacked. Clear now? Good, moving on. No, I’m just kidding.
I know that sounds like gobbledygook, but it’s really good gook. Okay, let me give you an illustration, a word picture. Picture a guy with a bucket, one guy, one bucket, and he fills up that bucket and then goes and pours his water into a trough. What he has in his bucket is only filling up that trough halfway. He then goes back and returns for a second trip and fills that up and fills it the rest of the way. That’s not what this is talking about.
If you put both of those things together, instead of one guy with one bucket, you’ve got two guys with two buckets. The first guy comes, pours his bucket, fills the trough halfway, and the second comes, pours his bucket, fills it the rest of the way. That’s the picture.
When we bring this back to God’s reconciliation in Christ; God sent Jesus of Nazareth to preach reconciliation and then to accomplish it, and he did it by suffering great affliction, physical affliction. It’s not talking about his atoning work at this point, he did accomplish that, but he suffered great affliction in the preaching and bringing himself to the cross.
So his is the first in the original bucket of water poured into the trough. But the trough is not full yet, not until the full intention of God’s reconciliation is complete. And what is that full intention? To preach the work of Christ in the word of his reconciliation, not just to the Jews only, but to the Gentiles too and so God sent Paul.
God sent the Apostle to the Gentiles to complete the preaching of the word of reconciliation to the Gentiles, and to do it by means through the same kind of suffering. As Jesus did in his own body, Paul suffered the afflictions of Christ in his body too, pouring the second bucket to fill the entire trough. We find the same principle illustrated in other places of Scripture.
And God does this as kind of a pattern where one starts, another brings to completion, one begins, and by the same kind of travail, another completes it. So by way of analogy, God’s redemption of Israel started at the exodus from Egypt under Moses, but it was brought to completion not by Moses, brought to completion in Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land.
We can see what Peter says about the prophets of old. They start predicting the grace that’s come to us. They were the start, 1 Peter 1:10, and though they sought to know, as Peter says, “What person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating, as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glory is to follow, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves. But you in these things which have now been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
The prophets predicted, prophesied, they started, and it’s the same water in their bucket of prophecy and then the word was preached by Christ and his apostles and completed it in the end. Same prophetic words, same revelation, water in the bucket poured in, filling the trough. It’s a principle of completion, that what one starts, God chooses another to finish, to bring it to its perfection, to its completion.
The same is true of all the faithful saints as we see in Hebrews Chapter 11, that great hall of faith. There’s that great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, the great cloud of witnesses outlined in Hebrews Chapter 11, all giving their witness and their testimony that the life of faith and suffering in the life of faith is worth it.
We come to the end of the chapter, Hebrews 11:39 to 40, “and all these,” the writer says, “having gained approval through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
You see what they started, and in their bucket is the life of faith is completed in us, in our bucket, life of faith together, a whole chorus, a choir of God’s saints, all testifying to the life of faith is worth it. There they are at the start, and here we are in our generations here at the finish and together we’re all completed. We’re made perfect in Christ.
It’s by the same analogy, then, God’s reconciliation, as we saw earlier in verses 21 to 23, and even backing up to the Christological section, we see that this reconciliation plan was ordained from before time began. It was decreed by God, and it’s this massive, massive plan with complexity and details and connections, and all of it comes together for trade here from start to finish.
It starts with the ministry of Christ’s humiliation and Jesus began to endure the afflictions of Christ which culminated at the cross. Christ’s afflictions were not completed until Paul’s Gentile ministry ended. Then the work of reconciliation was perfected. Then the work of reconciliation is completed.
After Jesus had done his work, having poured out his bucket. Paul has done his work, having poured out his bucket and the afflictions of Christ, that phrase, now complete the work of reconciliation, through the preaching of reconciliation and then Christ’s atonement that guaranteed and secured the reconciliation, and then the work of Paul and the apostles to preach the reconciliation and make sure, it was all, not only Jews, but Gentiles, also who participate, all that brought to completion through the afflictions of Christ.
Greg Beal says quote, “In this respect, Paul likely would have noticed his own sufferings were similar to the Messiah’s non-atoning sufferings.” Here what he says there, “non atoning sufferings,” speaking of his afflictions and then Beal points to, especially those portrayed in the suffering servant of Isaiah and he gives a number of comparisons.
God gave us Jesus the Christ and Paul the Apostle, and he gave these servants to us to suffer tremendous physical affliction, in bringing the news of divine reconciliation to us.” Travis Allen
I won’t take you back there for the sake of time, just cite him. Just as Jesus Christ was despised and rejected by men, Isaiah 53:3, Paul’s treated that way, too. Everywhere he went, he was treated as a fool. 1 Corinthians 4:10, without any honor. He’s reviled. Verse 12, He’s persecuted, slandered, treated as the scum of the world. Verse 13, He’s the dregs of all things.
Just as Jesus Christ “stricken, smitten, afflicted,” Isaiah 53:4, Paul too suffered severe bodily afflictions. Just as Jesus Christ is “chastened and beaten,” Isaiah 53:5, so also Paul was. He writes as we read 2 Corinthians 11:5, “times received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes, three times being with rods, once stoned.
Paul, along with the other apostles, all of them except one, all of them died as martyrs, sealing the ministry of their apostleship in blood. They followed quite literally, taking up their cross, following Jesus to their cross, but they did so uniquely, these apostles did, because they’re foundation stones of the church, Ephesians 2:20.
And they did so, especially the Apostle Paul, did so to fill up what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions in his own flesh, to supplement the afflictions of Christ, to complete God’s work of reconciliation in Christ. It’s one big picture. And now, that Apostolic work is complete and now that we hold in our hands the record of its completion, the completed Canon of Scripture, testimony of divine reconciliation completed, fulfilled in the New Testament, that trough is full and now we can come and drink deeply of it.
This word of reconciliation is proclaimed. We take it in, we believe it, we trust in it, and we spread the same word to others and call them to come and drink. Come and drink. Now, because I realized that that is a lot to take in, in one morning, there’s a reason why we’re not going to go any further in the text, but we want to stop for a moment and just kind of reflect on what we’ve heard and try to work this into our own hearts and let it build our devotion.
First, I’ve got four of these points, if you just jot them down for your own devotions. First, notice that God gave us Jesus the Christ and Paul the Apostle, and he gave these servants to us to suffer tremendous physical affliction, in bringing the news of divine reconciliation to us.
Beloved, what favor we have been shown, what privilege is ours, that men of this caliber would suffer affliction, and ignominity, and indignity, torture for the likes of you and me. So let us not despise what we have received, but pay very careful, close attention to it. In fact, come back tonight, we’re going to hear more about this from our study in Hebrews, to pay careful attention to what we’ve heard so we don’t drift away from it.
But listen, we are the beneficiaries of what came at such a great cost. We honor war vets, World War 2 vets, Vietnam War, other wars, the Jihad, all these different wars. We honor them as we should because they go off and suffer and they pay great sacrifice so you and I can sit here in air conditioning under electric lights without someone coming in with guns and forcing us to speak Chinese and deny our God or whatever the language may be.
How much more should we honor the, what we’re the beneficiaries that came at a great cost, as well, that by the afflictions of others, the great sacrificing for the small, the strong sacrificing for the weak, that we should be so privileged. So beloved, we must not, we dare not take our privilege lightly.
Whatever you think is really important in life, whatever you think is worth spending your time and money and energy on. If it’s not this, you’re holding on to ashes and calling it gold. We got to give our whole selves to God, to Christ, and join in the fellowship and the ministry of this great reconciliation.
Second thought, though, our Lord endured incredible suffering, and Paul too, our apostle, he didn’t endure A salvific suffering. It’s true. He didn’t endure the same intensity of suffering as the Lord did. I mean, the Lord was on the cross and in those hours on the cross he endured the full force of the wrath of God for sins. I mean, how can anything compare to that?
And yet Paul did endure affliction in his body for a long, long time, decades. And notice what Paul says. “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” Where do you learn to talk like that? He had his eyes fixed on Jesus. Hebrews 12:2, “author and perfector of faith. Who for the joy set before him endure the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
It’s the writer of Hebrews who calls Jesus the great apostle of our confession. He too is a sent one. That’s what apostello means, to be sent out on a mission, on a purpose. He’s the great Apostle, Capital A, Paul is one of his Apostles. So if Paul, looking to Christ rejoices, we too looking to Paul looking to Christ, we too must rejoice. And how do we do that? How do we do that?
How do we gain the perspective that we talked about earlier? We do it by going deeper, by understanding more fully this greatness of our salvation. So third, we come to a third point. There’s a notice in this great salvation, this great work of reconciliation. There’s a solidarity in this principle of perfection, the principle of completion that we talked about, that what was started before us, we’ve been chosen in our time to take up and to complete.
The baton has been handed to us and so we run our lap faithfully, we run hard, we finish our course, we turn and train up the next generation. We hand the baton to them so they can run too. We’re involved in this. We’re a part of it. If you’ll get your head around it, if you’ll deal with the idols of your heart that you are holding as ash that you think is gold, if you cast that away, you join in this fellowship of the saints, we have a solidarity to Christians of all time.
Let’s rejoice in it because in God’s great economy of reconciliation, we’re all going to be coming in together. We’re all going to be joined to one great company of the redeemed. And in that day, we will want to have done our part. Whatever little hobbies and pastimes and distractions that we are engaging in now that seems so important now, that is going to wither away as chaff and dust, and we are going to rue the fact that we ever spent one second on them.
Let’s run the race that’s set before us. Let me give you a fourth and a final thought for your devotion. Something about the message of reconciliation, a message that’s come to us through the suffering of our savior and through the suffering of his holy apostles. There is something about that connection that we have to consider today.
Though they and their ministries are unique and they’re now complete, there’s something profoundly important about the manner in which this message has come to us. It’s come through suffering and we need to get this: glory through suffering. Keeps the message pure, keeps it from being diluted, watered down, perverted, distorted.
It protects us from committing a great sin called adulterating the Word of God, trying to tailor or fashion the word of God, so it’s a little gentler on people’s palates and ears.
Now we got to keep the message pure and when we call people to the gospel, we got to use the words of like Luke 9:23. “If anyone would come after Christ, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me.” You’re entering into a life of suffering, a life of sacrifice, a life of giving, giving, giving. But there’s an eternal supply pouring into you constantly, and you are filled, enriched in the process.
All boasting must be in God because his power is continually portrayed in our weakness. It’s perfected in our weakness. That’s the message we need to absorb, think about very carefully. We need to be very careful on how we preach it and speak it to others, because to do otherwise is to lead to great distraction, deception, misdirection, giving people a bill of sale they don’t even know what they’re signing up for.
Well, for the sake of time, that’s where we need to stop. We’ll pick it up here when we come back next time. But this sets the foundation for all that comes next.
Our Father, we are so grateful for your great plan of redemption, this eternal decree of reconciliation. That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and he is given to the apostles, this ministry of reconciliation. But here we are products of that completed ministry of reconciliation, and we take up the same call and call people to be reconciled to God.
We, we mimic our apostles, we mimic our Lord. We want to be imitators of Paul and of Christ and all the apostles as we preach this great salvation. Father, help us not to take this lightly, never to take you for granted, never to take your Christ for granted. But let us more deeply appreciate and absorb the truth that we’ve heard today. Let it shape our perspective and set our directive and our time with our calling in Jesus’ name, Amen.