Charles Ellicott Commentary Colossians 3:11

"where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all." — Colossians 3:11 (ASV)

Where there is neither . . .—This passage naturally suggests comparison with Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Jesus Christ.” In comparing the passages (passing by the insertion here of “circumcision nor uncircumcision,” which is simply explanatory of “Jew nor Greek”) we notice in this:

1. The insertion of “barbarian, Scythian.” This insertion is clearly intended to rebuke that pride of intellect, contemptuous of the unlearned, which lay at the root of Gnosticism. The “barbarian” was simply the foreigner (Compare to 1 Corinthians 14:11); the “Scythian” was the savage, towards whom the contempt implied for the “barbarian” assumed explicitness, and reached its climax.
2. The omission of “male nor female.” In Oriental society, as in Galatia, the dignity of women needed to be asserted against supposed inferiority. In Greek or Grecized society, as at Corinth, Ephesus, and Colossae, the new “freedom” of the gospel was apt to be abused to license; hence it was rather the “subjection” of women which needed to be suggested. (Compare to 1 Corinthians 11:3–16; 1 Corinthians 14:34–35; Ephesians 5:22–24; and 1 Timothy 2:11–15.)
3. Whereas in the Galatian Epistle the stress is laid on the unity of all with one another in Christ, here (as usual) the great truth is that “Christ is all things and in all.” In 1 Corinthians 15:28 we have this phrase applied to God, in contradistinction to the office of the Son in His mediatorial kingdom. Here it is in reference to that kingdom that it is used. In it Christ “fills all in all;” and by His universal mediation all “life is hid with Him in God.” He is all that can be needed, and that both “in all things” and “in all persons.” But under both aspects the catholicity of the gospel is equally brought out; here by the direct union of all alike with Christ, there by the resulting unity of all with one another.