Praise God—Sunday is almost here! In order to help us prepare for the church’s Sabbath worship, here are some very good words from John Cal-vin’s Commentary on Paul’s letter of Colossians. Calvin is explicating Col. 1:12a here. . . .
“ ‘Giving thanks.’ Again [Paul] returns to thanksgiving, that he may take this opportunity of enumerating the blessings which had been conferred upon them [the Colossian church] through Christ, and thus he enters upon a full delineation of Christ. For this was the only remedy for fortifying the Colos-sians against all the snares, by which the false apostles endeavored to entrap them—to understand accurately what Christ was. For how is it that we are carried about with so many strange doctrines, (Heb. 13:9), but because the excellence of Christ is not perceived by us? For Christ alone makes all other things suddenly vanish. Hence there is nothing that Satan so much en-deavors to accomplish as to bring on mists with the view of obscuring Christ, because he knows that by this means the way is opened up for every kind of falsehood. This, therefore, is the only means of retaining, as well as restoring pure doctrine—to place Christ before the view such as He is with all His blessings, that His excellence may be truly perceived."
