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The first word, antanapleroo, claims our attention in the first place because of its
curious construction. It is a double compound, being prefixed by both anti, "instead of",
and ana, "up".
Anapleroo occurs six times in the N.T. and is translated "fill up", "fulfil",
"occupy" and "supply". Antanapleroo occurs but once, in Col. 1: 24. Anti is a
preposition meaning "instead of" and then "against", and in composition it means either
(1) Contrariety, as anthistemi = To oppose; (2) Reciprocity, as antiloidoreo = "To
revile in return"; (3) Correspondency, as antilutron = A ransom; and (4) In the place
of, as anthupatos = Proconsul.
By the use of this word the Apostle most evidently
intended something more than "to fill up", for that is expressed in the simplest verb,
anapleroo. The anti here retains its meaning of correspondency and a little investigation
will illuminate the Apostle's meaning.
Paul never forgot what manner of person he had been before his conversion. A year
before his martyrdom we find him writing to Timothy with vivid recollections of the
dreadful days that preceded his conversion.
"Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy,
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (I Tim. 1: 13).
Read the two passages together.
"Putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer" (I Tim. 1: 12, 13).
"I am made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you" (Col. 1: 23, 24).
One can well understand that Paul would realize something of the correspondency
between his earliest persecution and his subsequent suffering. When he was met by the
Lord on the road to Damascus he was astonished to hear from heaven the words, "Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou ME?" and it is easy to see that if his persecution of the
believer could be taken by the Lord as directed against Himself, then suffering endured
later, for the sake of Christ, might be looked upon as something corresponding. At his
conversion the Apostle was told that suffering was to be a part of his commission:
"He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and
the children of Israel: for I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's
sake" (Acts 9: 15, 16).
Some years before the close of the Acts, the sufferings endured by Paul for Christ's
sake were of an overwhelming nature. He likened himself and those who stood with him,
to the condemned, who entered the arena last, "a spectacle unto the world, and to angels
and to men" (I Cor. 4: 9). This statement is followed by a list of sufferings any one of
which would mark a man as a martyr, but, taken together, they compel us to confess that
here indeed are "great things" suffered for the name of Christ. Yet, when we turn to the
second epistle written to this same church, we discover that in the early record the
Apostle had refrained from making known all he had suffered. In II Cor. 4: 8-12, we
have a prelude to the fuller list, which Paul said he felt a fool in mentioning, though