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Colossians 1:2

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

To the saints - Those who professed Christianity. See the note on Ephesians 1:1.

Which are at Colosse - Instead of εν Κολοσσαις, at Colosse, or among the Colossians, ABC, and many other excellent MSS., with both the Syriac, Coptic, Slavonic, Origen, Gregory Nyssen, Amphilochus, Theodoret, Damascenus, Theophylact, and others, read εν Κολασσαις in Colassa, or among the Colassians; and this is most probably the true reading. That this city perished by an earthquake, a short time after the date of this epistle, we have the testimony of Eusebius. That which at present is supposed to occupy the site of this ancient city is called Konos. For other particulars see the preface to this epistle.

Grace be unto you - See on Romans 1:7; (note).

And the Lord Jesus Christ - This clause is omitted by many MSS., several versions, and some of the fathers. Griesbach has left it out of the text, not, in my opinion, on sufficient evidence.

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

Grace be unto you - See the notes at Romans 1:7.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
All true Christians are brethren one to another. Faithfulness runs through every character and relation of the Christian life. Faith, hope, and love, are the three principal graces in the Christian life, and proper matter for prayer and thanksgiving. The more we fix our hopes on the reward in the other world, the more free shall we be in doing good with our earthly treasure. It was treasured up for them, no enemy could deprive them of it. The gospel is the word of truth, and we may safely venture our souls upon it. And all who hear the word of the gospel, ought to bring forth the fruit of the gospel, obey it, and have their principles and lives formed according to it. Worldly love arises, either from views of interest or from likeness in manners; carnal love, from the appetite for pleasure. To these, something corrupt, selfish, and base always cleaves. But Christian love arises from the Holy Spirit, and is full of holiness.
Ellen G. White
The Acts of the Apostles, 471

In his letter to “the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse,” written while he was a prisoner in Rome, Paul makes mention of his joy over their steadfastness in the faith, tidings of which had been brought him by Epaphras, who, the apostle wrote, “declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause,” he continued, “we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.” AA 471.1

Thus Paul put into words his desire for the Colossian believers. How high the ideal that these words hold before the follower of Christ! They show the wonderful possibilities of the Christian life and make it plain that there is no limit to the blessings that the children of God may receive. Constantly increasing in a knowledge of God, they may go on from strength to strength, from height to height in Christian experience, until by “His glorious power” they are made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” AA 471.2

The apostle exalted Christ before his brethren as the One by whom God had created all things and by whom He had wrought out their redemption. He declared that the hand that sustains the worlds in space, and holds in their orderly arrangements and tireless activity all things throughout the universe of God, is the hand that was nailed to the cross for them. “By Him were all things created,” Paul wrote, “that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight.” AA 471.3

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Ellen G. White
God's Amazing Grace, 320.1

Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:2. AG 320.1

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