Charles Ellicott Commentary Colossians 1:22

"yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him:" — Colossians 1:22 (ASV)

In the body of his flesh.—There seems to be some emphasis on the word “flesh:” just as in the parallel of Ephesians 2:16, the expression is “in one body,” with a characteristic emphasis on the word “one,” suiting the distinctive character of the passage. The meaning is, of course, His natural body, as distinguished from His mystic Body, spoken of above (Colossians 1:18).

But this is no sufficient reason for the use of this phrase, for there could be no confusion between them in this passage. Hence, without ascribing to the word “flesh” a distinctly polemical intention, we may not unnaturally suppose that there was present to St. Paul’s mind the thought of the Gnosticism, which depreciated the body as evil, and which must have always inclined to the idea that Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh (1 John 4:2–3); and that the presence of this thought induced some special emphasis in his language.

Holy and blameless and irreproachable.—See Note on Ephesians 1:4. The word “to present” is used both in a sacrificial sense and in the sense of introduction and presentation (as of a bride, see Ephesians 5:27). The words, “holy and blameless,” i.e., “without blemish,” suit the former sense. But “irreproachable” is incongruous with it, and the parallel passage (Ephesians 2:18) speaks of access or introduction to the Father.