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The subject that receives the fullest attention in this passage is 'the
hope'. Let us note the various items in its definition:
(1)
It is laid up in heaven.
(2)
It formed part of the 'word of the truth of the gospel'.
(3)
Which had all the world in view.
A superficial reading has led some to make of this passage a close
parallel with 1 Peter 1:4: 'An inheritance ... reserved in heaven for you'.
The words 'reserve' and 'lay up' however, are different, and the occasion
when this inheritance is entered is very different also. 'To lay up' is the
translation of apokeimai, which occurs four times in the New Testament:
'Here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin' (Luke
19:20).
'The hope which is laid up for you in heaven' (Col. 1:5).
'Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness' (2 Tim.
4:8).
'As it is appointed unto men once to die' (Heb. 9:27).
The first occurrence, a non -doctrinal usage, gives the elementary
meaning of the word, 'laid up as in a napkin'. The parallel passage (Matt.
25:18) indicates that this man 'went and digged in the earth, and hid
(apokrupto) his lord's money'.
We are already acquainted with the fact that the Mystery as revealed in
Ephesians and Colossians is said to have been 'hidden' from ages and
generations (Col. 1:26; Eph. 3:9), and that the very life of the members of
the One Body is said to be 'hid' with Christ in God, so that a hope 'laid up'
as a talent in a napkin is in harmony with a life 'hid' and a mystery
hitherto unrevealed.
This hope is laid up 'in heaven'. In one sense this is true of all
blessings, for 'every good and every perfect gift cometh from above', but it
is not true that every blessing will be enjoyed 'in heaven'. Some will be
enjoyed on earth, and some in the new Jerusalem. Those blessings that are
not only heavenly in character, but which can only be enjoyed 'in the
heavenly places far above all', are those which pertain to the high calling
of the Mystery.
This special hope was made known to the Colossians by 'the word of the
truth of the gospel', an expression so in line with Ephesians 1:13 as to be
an intentional reference to the same thing. Let us put them together:
'Who had a prior hope in Christ, in Whom, ye also, upon hearing The
Word Of Truth, The Gospel of your salvation ... having believed, were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise' (Eph. 1:12,13 author's
translation).
'For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard
before in The Word Of The Truth Of The Gospel; which ... bringeth forth
fruit ... your love in the spirit' (Col. 1:5-8).
This gospel had come unto the Colossians and all the world. The word
'come' does not imply that when the apostle wrote these words the gospel
referred to had actually been 'preached' in all the world. The word 'come'
is parontos, a participle of the verb pareimi, 'to be beside', which also