John Calvin Commentary Colossians 2:2

"that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, [even] Christ," — Colossians 2:2 (ASV)

That their hearts may receive consolation. He now indicates what he desires for them and shows that his affection is truly apostolic, for he declares that he desires nothing else than for them to be united together in faith and love. He shows, accordingly, that it was not by any unreasonable affection (as happens in some cases) that he had been led to feel such great concern for the Colossians and others, but because the duty of his office required it.

The term consolation is taken here to denote that true quietness in which they may repose. This, he declares, they will eventually come to enjoy if they are united in love and faith. From this it appears what the chief good is and in what it consists—when, mutually agreed in one faith, we are also joined together in mutual love. This, I say, is the solid joy of a pious mind—this is the blessed life.

However, just as love is here commended for its effect, because it fills the mind of the pious with true joy, so, on the other hand, its cause is pointed out by him when he says, in all fullness of understanding. The bond of holy unity is also the truth of God, when we embrace it with one accord, for peace and agreement with men flow from that fountain.

Riches of the assurance of understanding. As many, contenting themselves with a slight taste, have nothing but a confused and evanescent knowledge, he expressly mentions the riches of understanding. By this phrase he means full and clear perception; and at the same time, he admonishes them that they must also make progress in love according to the measure of their understanding.

In the term assurance, he distinguishes between faith and mere opinion; for that man truly knows the Lord who does not vacillate or waver in doubt, but stands fast in a firm and constant persuasion. Paul frequently calls this constancy and stability πληροφορίαν (full assurance)—a term he also uses here—and always connects it with faith, as it can undoubtedly no more be separated from it than heat or light can be from the sun. The doctrine, therefore, of the schoolmen is devilish, since it takes away assurance and substitutes in its place what they term moral conjecture.

Is an acknowledgment of the mystery. This clause must be read as added by way of apposition, for he explains what that knowledge is which he has mentioned—that it is nothing other than the knowledge of the gospel. For the false apostles themselves endeavor to pass off their deceptions under the title of wisdom, but Paul exclusively confines the sons of God within the limits of the gospel, so that they may desire to know nothing else (1 Corinthians 2:2). Why he uses the term mystery to denote the gospel has already been explained. Let us, however, learn from this that the gospel can be understood by faith alone—not by reason, nor by the perspicacity of the human understanding, because otherwise it is a thing hidden from us.

The mystery of God I understand in a passive sense, as meaning that in which God is revealed, for he immediately adds—and of the Father, and of Christ. By this expression, he means that God cannot be known except in Christ, just as, on the other hand, the Father must necessarily be known where Christ is known. For John affirms both:

He that hath the Son, hath the Father also: he that hath not the Son, hath also not the Father (1 John 2:23).

Hence, all who think they know anything of God apart from Christ contrive for themselves an idol in the place of God; just as, on the other hand, anyone is ignorant of Christ who is not led by Him to the Father and who does not embrace God wholly in Him. Meanwhile, it is a memorable passage for proving Christ’s divinity and the unity of His essence with the Father. For having spoken previously about the knowledge of God, he immediately applies it to the Son as well as to the Father, from which it follows that the Son is God equally with the Father.