Charles Ellicott Commentary Colossians 1:6

"which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and increasing, as [it doth] in you also, since the day ye heard and knew the grace of God in truth;" — Colossians 1:6 (ASV)

Which has come to you . . .—There is much variety of reading here, but the text followed by our version is certainly incorrect. The probable reading is, which has come to you, just as in all the world it is now bringing forth fruit and growing, as it also does in you.

In this sentence there are two lessons implied. First, the universality of the gospel, in which it stands contrasted, as with all local and national religions, whether of Judaism or of Paganism, so also with the secret doctrines of Gnostic speculation, intelligible only to the initiated few. Next, the test of its reality both by practical fruit of action, and by the spiritual growth connected with it. In relation to the former, faith without works is dead; in relation to the other it is “imperfect,” needing to be developed into maturity (James 2:20, 2:22).

Both these lessons were evidently needed, in consequence of the appearance at Colossae of the occult mysticism and the impractical speculation noted in Colossians 2:8, 2:10, 2:18. But the Church itself was still faithful. Hence the last words, as it also does in you, turning back again to Colossae in particular, are an insertion of kindly courtesy—one of the insertions of apparent afterthought not infrequent in St. Paul’s Epistles—intended to show that the implied warning is by no means a condemnation.