Colossians 1:12-14

⁹For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. ¹³For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption [through His blood], the forgiveness of sins.

In v12-14, we read that God has decisively saved the Colossian believers, a message contrary to the false teaching they had been hearing – that the spiritual powers (cosmic beings or angels) could disqualify even believers from life with God and therefore more than Christ was necessary (He was insufficient). Thus, Paul uses the word “qualified” in v12 as a direct rebuke of the false teachers’ language. In v13, Paul switches from a “you” focus to an “us” focus (pointing out that what’s coming is true for all Christians) when he uses the word “rescued” reflecting on Old Testament imagery of the Exodus and deliverance from exile in Babylon. This Jewish-influenced audience would have grasped that illustration and been encouraged even more to believe Paul’s message as a result. He also says that God “brought us” into the kingdom of Jesus, literally “the Son of His love,” meaning the real love of God, of which every being other than Jesus can be nothing more than a reflection. So God the Father rescues us from the dominion of darkness and delivers us into Jesus’ kingdom, the kingdom of light. Paul’s mention of darkness and light and calling Jesus the Son of God’s love is inline with the synoptic gospels (John 3:19-21; 2 Corinthians 4:3-7), which may have begun to circulate around this time.

In v14, Paul masterfully begins his transition from prayer to the exaltation of Jesus Christ, which is fully revealed in the second half of this chapter. As the beginning and end of all things, Christ is supreme, and Paul’s first acknowledgement here is that we have redemption in Him, meaning the forgiveness of sins, which entails both pardon for sin’s guilt and deliverance from sin’s power. Our primary and most basic need is this – and Christ provides it. Thanks be to God! The false teachers in the midst of the Colossians were probably teaching that we have forgiveness from sin in Christ, but that we need deliverance from the mystical and cosmic powers of darkness through various pagan rituals and Gnostic experiences. Paul refutes that here in the beginning of his exaltation of Christ. He points out that we already have complete redemption; we are no longer under its dominion. Elsewhere, Paul teaches that we are waiting for redemption (Romans 8:23) or criticizes those who over-emphasize the already aspect of it (1 Corinthians 4:8-13). Perhaps we can learn from this to balance our understanding and appreciation of the “already / not yet” reality of the Christian life.

One thing Paul does very clearly here is separate Christians from non-Christians. The difference is one of darkness and light. And what fellowship can light have with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)? And perhaps the most important thing to walk away with here is the understanding that this distinction is made by God. We were delivered, rescued, redeemed, saved from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light. God qualified us for this inheritance; we did not qualify ourselves through faith. He qualified us through faith.

Though sounding harsh, Vincent Cheung makes a valid observation: “The ways that Scripture uses the contrast between light and darkness suggest that the metaphors apply to at least four major areas of differences between Christians and non-Christians – the ethical, intellectual, existential, and eschatological. Ethically, non-Christians are evil and filthy people. Intellectually, they are stupid and irrational people. Existentially, they are restless and miserable people. Eschatologically, they are condemned and doomed people. In contrast, because of the grace of God and the work of Christ, Christians are righteous, enlightened, joyous, and redeemed… Those who deny the nature and degree of these differences also deny the necessity and magnitude of the work of Christ, and thus deny the Christian faith… Finally, to diminish the contrast between light and darkness also distorts the nature of gospel ministry. Jesus said to Paul in commissioning him to the ministry, ‘I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me’ (Acts 26:17-18). This is consistent with what Paul says in our passage, that Christians are called to receive forgiveness and an inheritance, but that, on the other hand, non-Christians are under ‘the power of Satan,’ that they are ‘darkness,’ and that someone must ‘open their eyes’ in order for them to see the truth – not that they are physically blind, of course, but that they are intellectually dull.” Any thoughts on that?