The Kingdom of the Son of His Love

A true and unfalse gospel. This is so as to add to and confirm their faith in all the world; for he says that the gospel has reached not only to you, but already even to all the world, which is a sign of the power of Christ working in the preaching. It was not neglected, but it bears fruit and grows.

And the hope laid up for the resurrection and the kingdom was not established by the administration of angels, but by the presence of Jesus Christ. And the gospel of the one present among you, he says, is not a falsehood, so that it might be nullified; nor did it reach only to you alone, but to all people. And although it did not reach everyone, it was not bypassed, but it is bearing fruit and growing.

Epaphras is presented as being one of the saints and having instructed them, so that they might more attend to his teaching (Col 1:7). And what was the will of God? To know you and to realize that it is not possible for you to be saved through angels but through Jesus Christ (Col 1:9). How then do we come to knowledge? In spiritual wisdom, not worldly.

Above all, it brought patience along with long-suffering (Col 1:11); for patience without long-suffering does not stand, and without joy, patience has no reward. And it is necessary above all in these things to have joy; for not the one who grieves over afflictions for Christ, but the one who rejoices over them receives a reward from God. And what is the reward? The adoption, the inheritance, the fellowship with the angels.

And before the flood and after the flood, and before the law and in the law, the angels served God toward your salvation (Col 1:13–14). But God did not transfer us into his kingdom, but now through our Lord, his only-begotten, his kingdom is given to us. And the title of the Son of his love—not that Christ is the Son of the love of God, but just as certain sons of disobedience and other sons of hell, and the devil is a son of destruction, and another son of this was named, who joined himself to him and added himself, being not a son by nature but by the familiarity of manner—in this way also the Savior was called the Son of the love of God, because he is not only a Son of God by nature but also by the genuineness of love; for the Father loves the Son, he says, and has given all to him.

That the Father delivered us into his hands; or that having loved us, he suffered on our behalf. Thus it must be read: into the kingdom of the love of his Son.

And before the flood and after the flood, before the law and in the law, there were angels ministering to God for our salvation, but they did not establish us. But now God, through the administration of the Lord, has transferred us into his kingdom. Whom he loved: for indeed he loves angels as servants, but Christ as a Son. Therefore he did not lead you into the kingdom of the angels, but into the kingdom of the Son of his love. We are under the heir, not under the slaves.

Thus he says 'Son of love', because he is loved as a son, not because he is of the love of God; for neither are the sons of this disobedience sons by nature, nor are the sons of this Gehenna children, nor is the devil a son by nature of destruction, nor is the adversary a son of sin; likewise, the Lord is not a son of love. But since we are loved slaves, and the Son is loved as a son, he said: of the Son of his love.

Thus: he transferred us into the kingdom of the love of his Son. Because the Son, having loved us, suffered on our behalf so that he might make us worthy of his kingdom, for this reason he says: he transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; for having the unchanging relation toward the one begotten, according to the loving and benefiting of sinners, he is the icon of the Father.

He intends to say that he was before: for if he were not before all, how would all things be created in him? And in him he said all things are being created, so that, having turned away from hoping in angels, we might have hope in Christ; and the 'in him' is instead of 'through him'. These things are said toward the Jews, so that they might not think from then on that he is of that which came into being in the flesh with them. All things were created through him and unto him. Instead of the cause of creation turning toward him, he said 'into him', meaning that nothing of the created things is outside him, but all things are contained by him. And all things consist in him; that is, through him, or instead of being in his will and power to hold all things together according to the mystery that is hidden in God, the one who created all things. In order to show you that he also is before all, he has said that also...