`Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ (A.V. margin),

let us go on unto perfection' (Heb. 6:1).

Here once more a literal rendering throws `beginning' and `perfecting'

or `ending' into prominence:

`That as he had begun, so he would also finish' (2 Cor. 8:6).

Here, the word translated `to make perfect' in Galatians 3:3 is

translated `to finish' as also:

`I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the

faith' (2 Tim. 4:7).

The figure that occurs with the use of this word in 1 Corinthians and

Hebrews, also in Ephesians, is that of a full grown adult.

`Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect ... I ... could

not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto

babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat' (1 Cor.

2:6; 3:1,2).

`For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one

teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God,

and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.  For

every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness:

for he is a babe.  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full

age (perfect), even those who by reason of use have their senses

exercised to discern both good and evil.  Therefore leaving the word of

the beginning of Christ, let us go on unto perfection' (Heb. 5:12 to

`Till we all come ... unto a perfect man ... that we henceforth be no

more children' (Eph. 4:13,14).

With the knowledge that we now have of the word under discussion, we

can return to Colossians 1 and realize that there is no intrusion into the

finished work of Christ by Paul's statement, but rather the idea that the

believer, whose holiness is already an unalterable fact in Christ, should by

teaching and admonition make that fact real experimentally, that he should

take to the end, or to its logical conclusion, such a glorious position as is

his by grace.  When the same apostle speaks of yielding the body as a living

sacrifice, he calls it a `reasonable' or `logical' service, in other words

the exhortation of Romans 12 is but the logical sequel of the doctrine of

Romans 6 or the perfecting of holiness of 2 Corinthians 7:1.

See article Perfection or Perdition (p. 176), for further

on

aspect  of  truth.

Principalities.  It is impossible to speak of the peculiar sphere of blessing

that belongs to the dispensation of the Mystery, without referring to

principalities and powers.  The Greek word translated `principality' is

arche, a word rendered `beginning' forty times, and recognizable in the

English arch -bishop, arch -itecture, etc.  In English, the word principality

implies sovereign power.