Verse of the day · September 4
Why does Colossians 2:3 say the treasures of wisdom are hid?
One line later, Paul warns them about being beguiled with enticing words.
In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:3
Paul had never been to Colosse, and the church planted there was not of his planting. He had not seen their faces, nor those at Laodicea, and his care for them still amounted to a conflict — a sort of agony, and a constant fear about what would become of them. He does not ask that they be healthy, and merry, and rich, and great, and prosperous, but that their hearts be comforted. A line further on he warns them about being beguiled with enticing words.
Matthew Henry calls what Paul asks for here the prosperity of the soul, and the best prosperity there is. It runs on knowledge grown into an understanding of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, not merely spoken by rote but entered into, and on a faith that does not call the great truths of the gospel into question and is not ashamed under the frowns of enemies. Paul's phrase for it is the riches of the full assurance of understanding, and great knowledge and strong faith make a soul rich.
JFB read the third verse straight off the second, word answering word. The all of one answers the all of the other, treasures answer riches, and it is from the treasures that the riches are derived. What it asserts is that all the treasures are in him, and hidden is said of the state or manner in which they are in him.
The margin of some Bibles reads wherein instead of in whom, and Albert Barnes comes down on in whom, since Christ's name is the immediate antecedent and what is affirmed here properly belongs to him. Adam Clarke reads it the other way. Or rather in which, he says, referring to the mystery just above, so that what holds the treasures is the glorious scheme of Christianity itself, which the wisdom of God alone could devise. JFB answer by naming what the mystery is: Christ is himself the mystery, and to Christ the relative refers.
John Gill allows either, the gospel with its hidden treasures of all divine truths, or Christ himself, and takes the word hid as a statement about worth. Only valuable things get hidden, or compared to hid treasure, so the hiding measures the excellency of what is in him. It fixes the terms of access too, because this cannot be had without knowing him. Nor is there anything worth knowing but what is in Christ, and all of it is laid up in him.
Our highest wisdom, Gill says, lies in knowing him, and the excellency of that knowledge surpasses everything else. As God, Christ is the all-wise God, an omniscient Being that knows all persons and things whatever. As man, his wisdom and knowledge, though created, were very large and abundant. As Mediator, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and of knowledge, rests upon him. All of that stands, and the treasures here are still less his personal wisdom than the fulness of truth as well as grace that dwells in him as in its subject and fountain, and is derived from him to us. Henry states the relation in the words Paul had used to the Corinthians: he is the wisdom of God, and is of God made unto us wisdom.
Henry reads the hiding as done in their favour, because the treasures of wisdom are hidden not from us, but for us, in Christ. Those who would be wise and knowing must make application to him. The treasures are all in him hidden, JFB say, but not in order to remain so; they only need exploring for the Colossians to attain to the riches in them, and they stay hidden until the Colossians press after that full knowledge.
Barnes keeps both senses, glossing hid as treasures that are concealed, or garnered up. It does not mean that none of them had been developed, he says, but that Christ as Mediator was the great treasure-house holding all the wisdom and knowledge needful for men. He can instruct us in all that it is desirable for us to know, so that it is not necessary to apply to philosophy, or to the teachings of men. The Geneva Notes say there is no true wisdom outside of Christ.
Paul was in an agony over a church that had never seen his face, and what he asked for it was a comforted heart. The word in the third verse is hid, which gets said of things put somewhere on purpose, by somebody who knows where. Whatever depth was on offer in Colosse had already been laid up under a name these people had confessed with their own mouths, and laid up to be drawn on rather than kept. What was left for them to do was spend upon the stock, which will still be giving up fresh treasures through eternity.
Drawn from Matthew Henry, John Gill, the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary, Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke and the Geneva Bible notes.
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